3  1822026950303 


3  1822026950303 


•<• 


H 


THE  GREAT  EMPRESS 
DOWAGER    OF   CHINA 


THE  GREAT  EMPRESS 
DOWAGER   OF   CHINA 


BY 


PHILIP   W.   SERGEANT,   B.A. 

FORMER  EDITOR  OF  THE  "HONGKONG  DAILY  PRESS " 
AI/THOR  OF  "THE  IMPRESS  JOSEPHINE,  NAPOLEON'S  ENCHANTRESS 
"CLEOPATRA  OK  EGYPT,"  ETC. 


WITH  16  ILLUSTRATIONS 
INCLUDING  A  PHOTOGRAVURE  FRONTISPIECE 


NEW   YORK 

DODD,   MEAD   &  COMPANY 
1911 


Printed  in  Great  Britain 


TO 
R.  F.  J. 


PREFACE 

"I,|7"HEN  I  went  out  to  China  to  edit  the  Hongkong 
Daily  Press  the  Boxer  troubles  were  just  ap- 
proaching their  acutest  point.  It  was  customary  then 
for  foreign  journalists  and  other  residents  on  the 
China  coast  to  speak  of  the  Empress  Dowager  as  a 
bloodthirsty  old  harridan,  a  murderous-hearted  hag, 
and  the  like.  I  well  remember  the  outcry  aroused  by 
an  American  missionary  (whose  name,  however,  I 
forget)  when,  soon  after  the  return  of  the  Chinese 
Court  to  Peking,  he  ventured  to  couple  her  name 
with  those  of  the  recently  dead  Queen  Victoria  and 
of  Queen  Elizabeth  of  England,  speaking  of  them  as 
the  three  most  remarkable  women  who  had  occupied 
thrones.  In  those  days  it  was  more  usual  to  compare 
Her  Imperial  Majesty  with  Jezebel,  Messalina,  and 
such  pleasing  characters,1  and  the  missionary's  bold 
innovation  was  greatly  resented.  And  when  ladies 
from  the  Legations  and  other  foreign  households  in 
Peking  were  seen  accepting  invitations  to  call  at  the 
Palace,  with  their  little  sons  and  daughters,  there  was 
much  fiery  indignation  expressed,  especially  as  they 
did  not  refuse  presents  from  "hands  stained  with  the 
blood  of  European  children." 

1  See  p.  310. 


viii  PREFACE 

Times  have  changed  since  then.  We  have  read  in 
recent  years  many  whole-hearted  eulogies  of  the  old 
Empress  Dowager,  both  before  and  after  her  death 
two  years  ago.  For  some  reason  which  I  cannot 
profess  to  explain,  it  is  from  American  pens  that  the 
warmest  praise  has  come.  Yet  it  cannot  be  denied 
that  there  has  been  a  general  revulsion  of  feeling 
among  Europeans  as  well.  Those  who  have  com- 
mitted themselves  most  deeply  in  writing  against  the 
late  Dowager  have  no  doubt  retained  their  prejudices. 
But  others  have  come  in  to  swell  the  court  sitting  in 
judgment  upon  her,  who  have  drawn  their  impres- 
sions from  the  period  1902-8,  after  she  began  to 
purge  herself  so  completely  of  her  sin  in  befriending 
the  Boxers  and  proclaimed  herself  a  sympathizer  with 
Reform.  It  is  now  by  no  means  certain  how  a  ver- 
dict on  her  character  would  be  cast,  if  it  could  be 
taken  from  the  mouths  of  all  Westerners  interested 
in  modern  Chinese  history. 

As  I  say  in  the  last*  paragraph  of  this  book,  I 
refrain  from  attempting  to  indicate  definitely  how 
that  verdict  should  go.  I  have  endeavoured  to  set 
out  the  evidence  impartially.  I  was  led  to  the  task 
of  writing  this  biography  by  my  admiration  for  the 
people  over  whom  the  Empress  Dowager  ruled  for 
so  long  and  with  such  ability.  I  am  conscious  of 
my  rashness  in  doing  so  when  I  am  no  Sinologue 
— a  fact  which  will  be  evident  to  the  Sinologues 
merely  through  the  spellings  which  I  have  adopted 
for  Chinese  names.  In  this  respect  I  have  aimed  at 


PREFACE  ix 

simplicity,  for  the  benefit  of  the  general  reader,  to 
whom  (for  instance)  the  transliteration  Tz'ti  Hsi 
cannot  but  be  repellent,  whereas  Tze-hi  is  at  least, 
I  trust,  pronounceable.  "  Diacritical  marks "  are, 
unfortunately,  only  a  pleasure  to  the  purist. 

1  desire  to  make  my  grateful  acknowledgments  to 
Professors  Parker  and  Giles  and  to  Sir  James  Stewart 
Lockhart,  High  Commissioner  of  Weihaiwei,  for  the 
kind  way  in  which  they  have  answered  questions 
which  I  have  put  to  them  on  various  difficult 
points  ;  to  Mr.  R.  F.  Johnston,  now  of  Weihaiwei, 
not  only  for  the  hitherto  unreproduced  example  of 
the  Dowager  Empress's  art,  from  a  memorial  stone 
of  which  he  took  a  rubbing  when  travelling  in 
Shensi,  but  also  for  much  advice  about  things 
Chinese,  in  which  he  more  than  anyone  first  stirred 
my  interest  when  we  were  both  in  Hongkong  ; 
to  Mr.  D.  Warres  Smith,  lessee  of  the  Hongkong 
Daily  Press,  for  the  access  which  he  has  given  me  to 
the  files  of  the  paper  in  his  London  office  ;  to  Mr. 
Alfred  Cunningham,  formerly  manager  of  the  Hong- 
kong Daily  Press,  for  the  loan  of  his  autographed  por- 
trait of  Li  Hung-chang  and  the  photograph  of  Kang 
Yu-wei  ;  and  to  Lady  Raines  for  kindly  allowing  me 
to  take  rubbings  of  the  two  private  seals  of  the  late 
Empress  Dowager  now  in  her  possession. 

PHILIP  WALSINGHAM  SERGEANT. 
LONDON,  September,  1910. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.   THE  BIRTH  OF  YEHONALA  .  i 

II.    CHINA  AND  THE  WEST   .  .  .         .       12 

III.  THE  REIGN  OF  HIENFUNG  .  .         .18 

IV.  THE  EMPRESS  ENTERS  POLITICAL  LIFE  .         .       39 
V.    THE   JOINT   REGENCY — RISE   OF  Li   HUNG- 

CHANG  .  .  .  57 

VI.    THE  MISSIONARY  QUESTION  IN  TZE-HI'S  LIFE- 
TIME .  .  .  75 

VII.  THE  REIGN  OF  TZE-HI'S  SON  .  90 

VIII.  TZE-HI  THE  EMPEROR-MAKER  .  .  .102 

IX.  TZE-HI  SOLE  REGENT    .  .  .  .117 

X.  THE  EMPRESS  IN  RETIREMENT  .  .  131 

XI.   FIRST     YEARS     OF     KWANGHSU  —  TZE-HI'S 

JUBILEE         .....     147 

XII.   KWANGHSU  THE  REFORMER        .  .     163 

XIII.  THE  REACTION  .  .  .  .     182 

XIV.  BEFORE  THE  STORM        .  .         .     196 
XV.   THE  EMPRESS  AND  THE  BOXERS  .  .         .212 

XVI.   WAR  AGAINST  THE  WORLD          .  .  232 

XVII.   THE  RETURN  TO  PEKING  .  f         .     250 

XVIII.    LAST  YEARS  :  THE  EMPRESS  AS  REFORMER  .     266 

xi 


xii  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XIX.    LAST  YEARS — continued    .  .  .         .278 

XX.   THE  END  OF  ALL  .  .288 

XXI.    THE  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA         .         .     310 

APPENDIX.    THE  EMPRESS  DOWAGER'S  ORIGIN     336 
INDEX     ......     338 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

THE  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  TZE-HI  .  .  .  Frontispiece 

FACING  PAGE 

FLORAL  DESIGN,  SIGNED  WITH  SEAL  OF  THE  EMPRESS 
DOWAGER         .  .  .  .  24 

THE  DRAGON  THRONE     .  .  .  90 

THE  EMPEROR  KWANGHSU  AS  A  CHILD  OF  THREE         .     104 
THE  EMPEROR  KWANGHSU  .  .  .         -132 

THE  MARQUIS  TSENG  (from  a  caricature  by  the  late 
Alfred  Bryan)  .  .  .  .  .     134 

THE  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  WITH  HER  NIECE  YEHONALA   .     146 

Li  HUNG-CHANG  (from  a  caricature  by  the  late  Alfred 
Bryan)  .  .  .  .  .  168 

KANG  YU-WEI      .  .  .  .  176 

YUAN  SHI-KAI     .  .  .  .  184 

PRINCE  CHING      .  .  .  .  .     208 

Li  HUNG-CHANG  IN  1900  .  .  .         -251 

THE  EMPRESS  DOWAGER,  REPRESENTING  THE  GODDESS 
OF  MERCY        ......     284 

FUNERAL  BOAT  OF  THE  EMPRESS  DOWAGER          .         .     306 
THE  LAST  PHOTOGRAPH  OF  THE  EMPRESS  DOWAGER     .     316 

IMPRESSIONS  OF  Two  PRIVATE  SEALS  OF  THE  EMPRESS 
DOWAGER        .  .  .  .  .  326 


xni 


THE    GREAT   EMPRESS 
DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

CHAPTER   I 

THE   BIRTH   OF   YEHONALA 

'  I  VHE  lady  destined  to  become  so  famous  in  the 
history  of  China,  and  of  the  world,  as  the 
Empress  Dowager  Tze-hi,  was  born  early  in  the 
second  half  of  the  year  I835,1  in  that  section  of 
Peking  which  is  known  to  Europeans  as  the  Tartar 
City.  Her  father  was  a  Manchu  military  officer  of 
the  name  of  Hweicheng,  belonging  to  the  clan  of 
Nala  or  Nara — a  clan-name  which  is  found  among 
the  Manchus  more  than  two  hundred  years  earlier. 
He  had  several  other  children  beside  his  celebrated 
daughter,  and  was  apparently  in  rather  poor  circum- 
stances, although,  like  all  the  Manchus  belonging  to 
the  eight  "  Banners  "  into  which  his  army  had  been 
divided  by  Abukhaye,  overthrower  of  China's  last 
native  dynasty,  the  Mings,  he  drew  his  regular  pay 
and  rations  as  a  Bannerman  for  doing  nothing  in 

1   See  p.  6. 


2    GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

particular  except  abstaining  from  manual  labour. 
Some  writers  would  make  Hweicheng  of  as  exalted 
rank  as  Lieutenant-General  of  the  White  Banner  ; 
but  had  this  been  the  case,  we  should  surely  have 
heard  something  more  about  him  than  his  mere  name. 

We  have  said  that  the  future  Empress  was  a 
daughter  of  Hweicheng.  It  must  be  added,  how- 
ever, that  there  are  other  versions  of  the  story  as  to 
her  parentage  which  have  obtained  wide  currency. 
It  has  been  said,  and  the  legend  has  been  adopted  by 
a  number  of  European  writers  and  appeared  in  many 
of  her  obituary  notices  in  this  country  and  elsewhere, 
that  Tze-hi  was  originally  a  Cantonese  (and  therefore 
a  Chinese,  not  a  Manchu)  girl,  who  was  sold  into 
slavery  by  her  family  in  childhood,  and  was  drafted 
into  the  Imperial  harem  at  Peking.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  as  far  as  can  be  ascertained,  one  of  the  con- 
ditions of  eligibility  for  that  harem  under  the  present 
dynasty  seems  to  be  that  the  candidate  must  be  of 
pure  Manchu  descent,  the  jealous  exclusiveness  of 
the  ruling  race  being  nowhere  more  strictly  ex- 
hibited than  in  this  respect.  Others  would  make  her 
a  Chinese  girl  adopted  into  a  Manchu  Banner 
family.1  But,  firstly,  adoption  of  girls  is  rare  in 
China ;  secondly,  Manchus  appear  only  to  adopt 
other  Manchus  ;  and,  thirdly,  there  still  remains  the 
objection  to  her  admission  into  the  harem. 

If  the  story  which  makes  her  a  Chinese  is,  to  say 
the  least,  improbable,  that  which  attributes  to  her  an 

1  See  Appendix. 


THE   BIRTH   OF   YEHONALA  3 

European  grandfather  is  quite  incredible,  although 
there  are  those  who  seem  to  believe  it.  No  doubt 
most  of  the  efforts  to  find  in  Her  Imperial  Majesty 
Tze-hi  some  alien  blood,  whether  Chinese  or  Euro- 
pean, have  their  origin  in  the  thought  that  her  strength 
of  character  separates  her  far  from  the  Manchus  as 
we  know  them.  The  idle,  ill-educated,  debauched, 
city-living  Bannerman  of  to-day — or,  at  least,  of 
yesterday,  for  since  1902  conditions  of  life  have 
changed  for  the  Manchus — is  so  different  from  his 
open-air,  hunting  and  fighting  ancestors,  who  made 
a  wild  Tungusic  Tartar  clan  from  the  Kirin  district 
of  Manchuria  lords  of  the  Empire  of  China,  that  the 
appearance  of  a  Tze-hi  may  well  seem  extraordinary, 
until  one  remembers  that  her  husband,  Hienfung,  was 
only  a  great-grandson  of  Kienlung,  the  most  power- 
ful and  probably  the  best  Emperor  who  ever  sat 
upon  the  throne  of  Peking,  one  truly  deserving  the 
titles  of  "The  August  Lofty  One"  and  "The 
Supreme  Ruler,"  which  are  among  those  bestowed 
upon  the  monarchs  of  China.  And,  in  any  case,  it  is 
surely  a  rash  proposition  to  maintain  that  a  degenerate 
race  cannot  produce  a  strong  character. 

Even  more  unconvincing  is  the  argument  that  the 
Empress  Dowager's  features  betray  her  foreign  origin. 
For  while  some  professed  to  find  European,  or  at 
least  non-Manchu  traits  in  her  face,  others  saw  in  her 
the  facial  characteristics  of  the  typical  high-bred 
Manchu  lady. 

We  may  be  content,  therefore,  to  regard  the  late 


4    GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

Empress  Dowager  of  China  as  a  daughter  of  the 
Manchu  officer  Hweicheng.  The  name  that  was 
given  to  her  as  a  child  was  Yehonala,1  which  was  also 
the  name,  as  we  shall  see  later,  of  her  niece,  wife  of 
the  Emperor  Kwanghsu.  About  the  elder  Yehonala's 
childhood  conjecture  must  supply  the  place  of  know- 
ledge. The  Manchu  ladies  of  Peking,  when  not  of 
the  highest  rank,  have  always  enjoyed  far  greater 
independence  than  their  Chinese  sisters,  and,  long 
before  the  present  movement  toward  the  emancipation 
of  women,  might  be  seen  going  about  the  streets  un- 
attended, sometimes  even  doing  their  own  shopping 
on  foot.  It  would  not  be  surprising,  therefore,  to 
find  that  Yehonala  as  a  child  lived  in  the  daytime  a 
very  open-air  life,  playing  in  the  streets  of  the  Tartar 
City  and  carrying  a  small  brother  or  sister  on  her 
back  in  the  way  so  familiar  to  all  visitors  to  China. 
And  very  probably,  owing  to  her  father's  modest 
circumstances,  she  who  one  day  was  to  have  a  gigan- 
tic palace-staff  of  women  and  eunuchs,  compelled  to 
receive  her  commands  on  their  knees,  was  in  her 
earliest  years  accustomed  to  share  in  the  ordinary 
routine-work  of  a  poor  household. 

Yehonala  may  therefore  have  had  an  upbringing 
calculated  at  the  same  time  to  strengthen  her  body 
and  sharpen  her  wits.  With  regard  to  her  other 
education,  it  is  always  stated  that  when  she  was 

1  Concerning  this  name  Yehonala,  Professor  E.  H.  Parker  writes 
to  me,  in  response  to  a  query  :  "  Yehe  is  the  name  of  one  of  the 
Manchu  tribes  conquered  by  the  leading  tribe  270  years  ago.  *  Nara 

or  Nala  of  the  Yehe  ilk  ' ;  cp.  The  Smiths  of  Lancashire" 

• 


THE   BIRTH   OF   YEHONALA  5 

selected  for  the  Imperial  harem  at  the  age  of  fifteen 
or  sixteen  she  was  almost  illiterate,  her  subsequent 
reputation  as  a  scholar  being  entirely  due  to  her 
assiduous  study  after  she  reached  the  Palace.  If  she 
acquired  any  book-knowledge  previously  it  would  be 
a  mere  smattering  of  the  Filial  Piety  Classic,  attributed 
partly  to  Confucius,  and  held  in  great  reverence  in 
China,  though  usually  dismissed  by  Western  critics 
as  a  disappointing  and  commonplace  work  ;  and  of 
abridged  forms  of  the  other  great  Classics  which, 
until  a  few  years  ago,  supplied  the  sole  means  of 
learning  for  the  children  of  the  Flowery  Land, 
Chinese  or  Manchu,  boy  or  girl. 

It  is  disappointing,  although  only  to  be  expected, 
that  we  should  know  so  little  of  the  first  chapter  in 
the  life  of  China's  greatest  Empress,  especially  as 
her  lifetime  was  practically  contemporaneous,  down 
to  1909,  with  the  period  of  direct  and  violent  con- 
tact between  China  and  the  Western  nations.  It 
would  have  been  interesting  to  discover  when  first 
Yehonala  learnt  of  the  existence  of  those  "outside 
barbarians,"  in  the  struggle  set  up  by  whose  inter- 
course with  her  country  she  was  destined  afterwards 
to  play  so  large  a  part.  But,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
we  do  not  know  whether  she  gave  a  thought  to  them 
until  the  time  when  her  husband,  the  Emperor  Hien- 
fung,  fled  with  her  and  the  rest  of  his  household 
from  Peking  to  escape  from  the  invading  English  and 
French.  So  dense  was  the  ignorance  in  which  the 
Manchu  Court  of  those  days  was  sunk  that  even  the 


6    GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

mother  of  the  heir-apparent,  as  Yehonala  had  then 
become,  could  have  had  no  opportunity  of  informing 
herself  as  to  the  nature  and  character  of  the  strangers 
from  beyond  the  seas.  In  her  later  years,  when  she 
was  in  the  habit  of  receiving  European  and  American 
ladies  and  conversing  with  them  familiarly,  the  Em- 
press Dowager  never  talked  of  her  early  thoughts 
and  impressions  about  foreigners.  In  view  of  the 
attitude  of  mind  of  the  Chinese  nation  towards  the 
Western  peoples  when  she  was  young,  politeness 
perhaps  forbade  her  being  communicative  on  this  sub- 
ject. "  The  barbarians  are  like  beasts,  and  are  not  to 
be  ruled  after  the  same  principles  as  citizens."  Such 
was  the  opinion  of  one  of  the  earlier  Emperors,  and 
this  maxim  governed  the  action  of  the  Court  of 
Peking  where  foreigners  were  concerned. 

The  year  before  that  in  which  Yehonala  was  born 
(her  first  year  of  life  according  to  the  ideas  of  the 
Chinese,  who  reckon  a  child's  life  as  commencing 
from  the  date  of  its  conception,  and  place  the 
Empress's  "birth-day"  in  November,  1834)  wit- 
nessed one  of  the  most  important  events  in  the  his- 
tory of  East  and  West,  certainly  the  most  important 
in  the  relations  of  China  and  Great  Britain.  And 
therefore,  although  this  event  in  no  way  belongs  to 
the  personal  history  of  Yehonala,  and  occurred  before 
her  birth,  there  need  be  no  apology  made  for  dealing 
with  it  here  at  some  length,  seeing  that  the  child 
of  1834  was  one  day  to  be  called  upon  to  deal,  on 
behalf  of  China,  with  the  far-reaching  and  terrible 


THE   BIRTH   OF   YEHONALA  7 

consequences  of  that  year  and  the  momentous  period 
which  followed  it. 

In  1834  there  sat  upon  the  Dragon  Throne,  in  the 
fourteenth  year  of  his  reign,  the  sixth  of  the  Ta 
Tsing  or  "  Great  Pure  "  dynasty,  which  had  ruled  the 
Empire  since  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century. 
Taokwang  was  grandson  of  the  illustrious  Kienlung 
and  son  of  Kiaking,  who — in  spite  of  Taokwang's 
pious  eulogium  upon  him  when  he  died — was  the  first 
degenerate  of  his  family,  a  dissolute,  ill-tempered, 
indolent,  and  avaricious  man,  and  a  bad  ruler  of  his 
people.  Taokwang  had  ascended  the  throne  at  the 
age  of  thirty-nine,  as  a  reward  for  saving  his  father's 
life  from  assassins  in  the  Palace  in  the  year  1813.  He 
soon  showed  himself  a  very  different  kind  of  Emperor 
from  what  his  predecessor  had  been,  striving  hard  to 
do  away  with  the  corruption  which  had  spread  over 
Court  and  administration  alike  during  Kiaking's  reign. 
But  both  in  private  and  in  public  life  misfortune 
dogged  his  steps.  His  Empress  and  first  wife  died 
early,  and  his  eldest  son  succumbed  to  the  effects 
of  excessive  opium-smoking  at  the  age  of  twenty  ; 
while  internal  rebellions,  a  legacy  from  the  evil  days 
of  his  father,  disturbed  the  peace  of  the  Empire,  and 
were  followed  by  still  greater  troubles  from  abroad, 
beginning  in  the  year  of  Yehonala's  entrance  into  the 
world. 

In  the  April  of  1834  the  charter  expired  which 
King  Charles  I  had  granted  two  hundred  years  ago 
to  the  East  India  Company.  The  growth  of  the 


8    GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

China  trade  had  been  so  great  since  the  Company  had 
received  its  monopoly  that  the  British  Government 
decided  not  to  renew  the  charter,  but  to  take  over 
itself  the  charge  of  the  commerce  between  England 
and  Canton,  under  the  Manchu  dynasty  the  sole  port 
open  to  European  traders  until  the  Treaty  of  Nan- 
king. Lord  Napier  was  appointed  by  Royal  Com- 
mission Chief  Superintendent  of  British  Trade  in 
China,  and  in  July,  1834,  he  reached  the  Portuguese 
colony  of  Macao  on  his  way  to  Canton.  Among  the 
instructions  which  he  was  given  by  Lord  Palmerston 
when  he  set  out  was  the  command  to  ascertain  whether 
trade  could  not  be  extended  from  Canton  to  other 
parts  of  the  Chinese  Empire,  and  whether  direct  com- 
munications might  not  be  established  with  Peking. 
He  was  told,  however,  to  "  adopt  no  proceedings  but 
such  as  may  have  a  general  tendency  to  convince  the 
Chinese  authorities  of  the  sincere  desire  of  the  King 
[William  IV]  to  cultivate  the  most  friendly  relations 
with  the  Emperor  of  China,  and  to  join  with  him  in 
any  measures  likely  to  promote  the  happiness  and 
prosperity  of  their  respective  subjects." 

Nothing  could  sound  fairer  than  this.  Unhappily 
the  British  Government  made  for  the  first  time  now 
the  mistake  which  it  has  made  countless  times  since 
in  dealing  with  the  Government  of  China.  It  omitted 
to  enquire  into  the  exact  position  of  affairs,  or  to  dis- 
cover how  the  Chinese  understood  the  situation. 
Now  the  Chinese  Government  had  received  no  inti- 
mation of  Lord  Napier's  appointment  before  he 


THE   BIRTH   OF   YEHONALA  9 

reached  Cantonese  waters,  and  was  unaware  of  the 
substitution  of  an  officially  appointed  Chief  Superin- 
tendent of  British  Trade  for  the  East  India  Com- 
pany's long  continued  monopoly.  Lord  Napier 
himself  had  foreseen  the  difficulty,  since  he  had 
requested,  before  he  left  England,  that  some  notifica- 
tion should  be  sent  to  Peking  of  his  appointment, 
or  that  at  least  the  Viceroy  at  Canton  should  be 
informed  of  it.  Lord  Palmerston,  however,  simply 
instructed  him  to  report  himself  by  letter  to  the  Vice- 
roy. It  is  true  that  it  would  probably  have  been 
impossible  to  notify  Peking  of  the  appointment, 
owing  to  the  arrogant  self-isolation  of  the  Chinese 
Court  from  the  affairs  of  the  outer  world.  But  the 
failure  to  acquaint  the  Canton  Viceroy  with  the 
changed  position  of  affairs  since  the  lapse  of  the  East 
India  Company's  charter  was  a  grave  blunder,  of 
which  the  Viceroy  quickly  availed  himself. 

Lu,  Viceroy  of  the  Liang  Kwang  (that  is,  of  the 
provinces  of  Kwangtung  and  Kwangsi),  was  stigma- 
tized by  Napier  in  a  despatch  to  the  home  Govern- 
ment as  "  a  presumptuous  savage."  He  was,  how- 
ever, merely  a  Chinese  official  of  a  very  ordinary 
type — haughty,  obstinate,  intensely  conservative,  and 
looking  on  all  other  nations  as  tributaries  of  the 
Celestial  Empire.  Seeing  that  the  Barbarian  "  Eye  " 
(superintendent)  was  proposing  to  come  to  Canton 
with  claims  to  an  official  post  for  which  there  was  no 
precedent,  he  ordered  the  Cohong,  the  body  of 
Chinese  merchants  at  Canton  through  whom  alone 


io    GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

foreigners  were  allowed  to  sell  and  buy,  to  send  a 
deputation  to  Napier  at  Macao  and  tell  him  that  he 
must  stop  there  until  he  had  received  permission 
to  proceed  to  Canton.  The  Cohong's  deputation 
arrived  too  late.  Napier  had  reached  the  foreign 
factories — for  the  present  settlement  on  Shameen 
Island  did  not  come  into  existence  until  nearly  thirty 
years  later — and  was  preparing  to  send  a  letter  to  the 
Viceroy.  Lu  refused  to  recognize  the  accomplished 
fact.  He  put  out  a  proclamation  to  the  Chinese 
merchants,  complaining  of  the  gross  infringement 
of  established  customs  by  the  Barbarian  "  Eye "  ; 
memorialized  the  throne  to  the  same  effect ;  declined 
to  receive  Napier's  letter  ;  and  ordered  the  cessation 
of  trade  with  the  British  merchants  at  Canton. 
Napier,  placed  in  a  most  unhappy  position  owing 
to  his  home  Government's  blunder  and  at  a  loss  what 
to  do,  committed  an  error  which  might  have  en- 
dangered the  lives  of  his  fellow-countrymen,  and, 
indeed,  of  all  the  foreigners  resident  in  Canton,  had 
Lu  really  been  the  savage  he  had  called  him.  He 
answered  the  Viceroy's  proclamations  with  a  counter- 
proclamation  translated  into  Chinese  and  addressed 
to  the  people  of  Canton,  denouncing  Lu's  ignorance 
and  obstinacy,  and  asserting  that  it  would  be  as  easy 
to  stop  the  current  of  the  Canton  River  as  to  carry 
into  effect  "  the  insane  determination "  to  cut  off 
British  trade.  Lu  retorted  with  a  complete  suppres- 
sion of  this  trade  and  a  stringent  boycott  of  Napier 
himself,  who  was  now  no  better  than  a  prisoner  in 


THE   BIRTH   OF   YEHONALA  n 

the  factories.  A  conflict  seemed  imminent.  Two 
British  warships  sailed  up  to  Canton  River  as  far  as 
Whampoa,  exchanging  fire  with  the  forts  on  the  way, 
and  a  boat's  crew  came  up  as  garrison  for  the  small 
foreign  colony. 

But  Lord  Napier  was  worn  out  with  the  struggle. 
His  health  broke  down,  and  at  the  end  of  September 
he  returned  to  Macao,  where  he  died  on  October  nth 
a  victim  to  the  inability  of  two  races  to  understand 
each  other's  ways  and  their  lack  of  effort  to  arrive  at 
such  an  understanding.  He  had  not  succeeded  even 
in  carrying  out  the  first  of  his  instructions,  for  at  his 
death  his  letter  reporting  himself  to  Viceroy  Lu 
remained  undelivered.  His  departure  from  Canton 
was  hailed  by  the  Viceroy  as  a  diplomatic  victory  over 
the  barbarians,  and  Lu  now  graciously  permitted 
British  trade  at  Canton  to  start  again. 

As  far  as  the  Chinese  were  concerned,  Napier's  visit 
must  have  seemed  a  very  trivial  incident  at  the  time. 
Peking  heard  nothing  about  it  except  through  Lu's 
memorials,  and  no  doubt  noted  with  satisfaction  that 
the  envoy  of  one  of  the  tributary  kings  had  received 
a  rebuff  for  his  scandalous  disregard  of  precedent 
and  had  been  obliged  to  abate  his  pretensions.  Noth- 
ing can  have  been  further  from  the  thoughts  of  the 
Canton  Viceroy  or  the  Court  of  Peking  than  that  this 
incident  of  1834  was  the  seed  from  which  were  to 
spring  war,  misery,  disgrace,  the  shattering  of  old 
ideals,  and  ultimately  the  forcible  opening  up  of 
China  to  the  nations  of  the  outer  world. 


CHAPTER    II 

CHINA   AND  THE   WEST 

TF  the  year  preceding  Yehonala's  birth  was  one  fated 
to  have  tremendous  consequences  for  China,  im- 
possible though  it  was  to  foresee  this  at  the  time,  a 
few  years  later  brought  events  the  significance  of 
which  was  unmistakable.  While  she  was  growing 
up  to  girlhood,  supremely  unconscious  of  the  great 
destiny  which  awaited  her,  the  nation  over  which  she 
was  one  day  to  rule  was  involved  in  its  first  war  with 
a  Western  Power,  and  as  the  result  was  compelled  to 
sign  a  treaty  ceding  Hongkong  to  the  victors,  open- 
ing not  only  Canton  but  also  Amoy,  Foochow, 
Shanghai,  and  Ningpo  to  foreign  trade  under  a  regular 
tariff,  and  agreeing  to  correspondence  on  equal  terms 
between  British  and  Chinese  high  officials.  Further- 
more, the  precedent  was  established  for  the  payment 
by  China  of  big  indemnities  whenever  she  offended 
a  Western  Power,  twenty-one  million  silver  dollars 
being  the  sum  extorted  on  this  occasion. 

This  war,  beginning  at  Canton  late  in  1839  and 
ending  at  Nanking  in  the  August  of  1842,  is  com- 
monly known  as  the  "  Opium  War."  From  the 
Chinese  point  of  view  the  name  is  fairly  descriptive, 
although  the  Treaty  of  Nanking  left  the  opium  ques- 


12 


CHINA   AND   THE   WEST  13 

tion  as  far  from  settlement  as  ever,  and  the  war, 
therefore,  in  this  respect  was  fought  in  vain. 

The  opium  difficulty  was  a  burden  which  the 
British  Government  took  over  when  it  discontinued 
the  East  India  Company's  monopoly.  The  Company, 
first  commencing  the  importation  in  1773,  had  latterly 
been  making  about  two  million  pounds  sterling  a  year 
by  the  growth  and  sale  of  opium  for  China.  The 
home  Government,  as  it  showed  by  its  action  both 
before  and  after  the  war,  was  not  prepared  to  give 
up  this  revenue,  while  at  the  same  time  it  denied 
responsibility  for  the  direct  importation  of  the  drug. 
On  the  time-honoured  principle  that  two  blacks  make 
a  white,  justification  has  been  found  for  this  attitude 
in  the  insincerity  of  the  Chinese  ;  for,  while  Peking 
and  the  high  provincial  authorities  vigorously  de- 
nounced the  "  foreign  dirt,"  officials  broadcast  filled 
their  pockets  by  conniving  at  opium-smuggling,  and 
opium-smoking  was  indulged  in  by  countless  people, 
from  princes  of  the  Imperial  family  downwards.  The 
genuineness  of  the  Chinese  Government's  crusade 
against  the  evil  it  was  convenient  to  ignore. 

From  the  British  point  of  view  it  may  be  said  that 
the  war  of  1839-42  was  only  incidentally  an  opium 
war,  that  it  was  practically  inevitable  had  there  been 
no  opium  question,  and  that  the  real  objects  were  the 
freedom  of  legitimate  trade  in  China  and  the  recogni- 
tion of  the  right  of  the  Western  nations  to  be  placed 
by  China  on  a  different  footing  from  that  of  tributary 
tribes  on  which  the  Court  of  Peking  wished  to  place 


14    GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

them.  It  was  very  unfortunate,  therefore,  that  the 
opium  question  was  allowed  to  occupy  so  much 
attention  before  hostilities  actually  broke  out,  that  an 
indemnity  was  exacted  in  the  Nanking  Treaty  for  the 
opium  surrendered  in  Canton,  and  that  after  the 
Treaty  no  attempt  was  made  by  the  British  Govern- 
ment to  put  down  the  importation  of  opium  which 
China  on  her  part  declined  to  legalize — and  continued 
to  declare  illegal  for  nearly  twenty  years  more. 
Opium-smuggling  went  on  briskly,  leading  to  con- 
stant trouble  at  Canton  and  leaving  the  Chinese  with 
a  substantial  grievance  against  the  foreigner  whenever 
they  desired  to  find  one. 

Unhappily  China  was  never  at  a  loss  for  grievances 
of  a  very  real  character  against  the  Western  Bar- 
barians ever  since  they  had  come  in  contact  with  the 
Celestial  Empire.  Apart  from  the  early  religious 
visitors — Franciscan  friars,  etc. — and  a  stray  traveller 
like  Marco  Polo,  it  was  the  Portuguese  adventurers 
who  first  gave  the  Chinese  their  introduction  to  the 
manners  of  the  Western  world.  And  these  Portu- 
guese were  greedy,  treacherous,  raping,  and  murdering 
ruffians,  whose  history  would  be  a  disgrace  to  any 
civilization.  Portugal's  neighbours  in  Europe  came 
next.  The  Spaniards'  first  notable  dealing  with  the 
Chinese  was  when,  in  1603,  some  thirty  years  after 
their  occupation  of  Manila,  they  massacred  twenty 
thousand  Chinese  immigrants  in  the  Philippines.  The 
Chinese  Emperor  of  the  period  was  too  much  occu- 
pied by  domestic  troubles  to  make  a  protest,  but  the 


CHINA   AND   THE   WEST  15 

feeling  against  Spanish  subjects  in  China  was  very 
bitter  for  long  afterwards,  and  led  to  isolated  acts  of 
revenge.  The  Dutch,  less  brutally  savage  than  the 
Portuguese  and  Spaniards,  yet  swooped  down  on  the 
Pescadores  group  early  in  the  seventeenth  century, 
and  seized  it  without  any  provocation  from  China. 
Persuaded  to  abandon  the  Pescadores  for  Formosa, 
they  were  only  driven  from  that  island  by  the  famous 
pirate  king  Koxinga. 

Britain's  first  intercourse  with  China  was  similarly 
accompanied  by  violence.  Captain  Weddell,  in  com- 
mand of  the  East  India  Company's  initial  venture  to 
Canton,  on  his  way  up  the  river  landed  and  captured 
the  Bogue  forts,  which  were  so  often  to  fall  before 
the  assaults  of  British  seamen  in  later  years.  After 
the  nations  of  the  West  had  established  a  firm  footing 
at  Canton,  the  history  of  the  eighteenth  and  early 
nineteenth  centuries  there  became  a  constant  record 
of  brawls  between  British,  French,  Portuguese,  and 
other  foreigners,  and  of  murders  of  natives  by 
drunken  sailors  from  Europe  and  America.  Only 
in  a  very  few  cases  were  the  Chinese  authorities  able 
to  get  hold  of  the  offenders.  It  is  little  to  be 
wondered  at  that  they  should  have  considered  appli- 
cable the  maxim  mentioned  in  the  preceding  chapter  : 
"  The  Barbarians  are  like  beasts,  and  are  not  to  be 
ruled  after  the  same  principles  as  citizens."  The 
nations  which  did  China  little  or  no  wrong  in  the 
earlier  days  have  since  amply  made  up  for  this — 
France,  Russia,  Germany,  and  the  United  States,  the 


16    GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

last-named  having  marred  a  good  record  in  China 
itself  by  the  treatment  accorded  to  Chinese  in  the 
States. 

A  sad  story  indeed  is  that  of  the  intercourse 
between  China  and  the  West.  China  exhibited 
faithlessness,  absurd  pride,  and  utter  ignorance  of 
the  ways  of  the  outer  world.  But  the  foreign 
invaders  of  the  Empire,  while  assailing  China's  want 
of  faith,  made  no  effort  to  act  honestly  themselves  ; 
while  ridiculing  China's  pride  and  ignorance,  showed 
a  supreme  contempt  for  the  "  savages,"  and  made  no 
attempt  to  acquaint  themselves  with  Chinese  manners 
and  prejudices  ;J  coupling  with  this  attitude  of  mind 
a  brutality  of  action  which  seemed  to  the  Chinese— 
as  it  must  also  seem  to  any  impartial  observer  in  the 
Western  world — a  poor  recommendation  of  the 
ethical  code  which  permitted  it.  The  difference 
between  theory  and  practice  in  the  civilization  which 
China  evolved  is  sufficiently  profound.  But  it  cannot 
be  said  to  be  as  great  as  that  between  the  professions 
of  Western  civilization  and  the  conduct  of  the  men 
who  forced  China  to  make  its  acquaintance. 

The  result  of  the  unfavourable  impression  created 
in  China  by  the  pioneers  from  Europe  was  to  lead 
her  to  erect  barriers  against  their  further  advance. 
The  Manchu  dynasty,  in  marked  contrast  to  some  of 

1  There  is  a  useful  Chinese  proverb,  which  might  with  advantage 
have  been  taken  as  a  motto  for  all  foreigners  going  to  China  :  "  When 
entering  a  village  learn  what  is  customary,  when  entering  a  country 
ascertain  what  is  forbidden." 


CHINA   AND   THE   WEST  17 

its  predecessors,  enforced  more  and  more  rigorously 
the  policy  of  exclusion  of  foreigners  and  limitation 
of  their  trade  to  Canton.  The  Emperors  became 
more  anti-foreign  and  more  anti-Christian  as  time 
went  on.  Kanghi  had  permitted  even  members  of 
his  own  family  to  be  baptized  by  the  Jesuit  fathers 
at  Peking.  His  son,  Yungcheng,  had  three  hundred 
churches  destroyed  and  all  missionaries  banished 
except  the  Jesuits  employed  by  himself  in  secular 
professions.  The  Regents  during  Kienlung's  minority 
persecuted  with  vigour.  The  vicious  Kiaking  exiled 
even  the  Jesuits  from  Peking.  And  Taokwang, 
though  a  much  better  man  than  his  father,  from  the 
outset  of  his  reign  was  a  foe  to  all  foreigners,  mission- 
aries and  traders  alike. 

With  this  steadily  narrowing  policy  of  the  Ta 
Tsing  dynasty,  the  ignorance  at  Peking  became  pro- 
portionately denser  concerning  the  outer  world.  The 
Court  was  like  a  snail  which  had  come  in  contact 
with  some  irritating  substance.  It  had  first  drawn 
in  its  horns,  then  retracted  its  body.  In  the  reign  of 
Taokwang  it  had  retired  completely  within  its  shell 
and  covered  itself  over  with  a  horny  shield.  The 
efforts  of  the  outer  nations  to  entice  it  forth  again 
continued  during  the  whole  lifetime  of  the  subject 
of  this  biography,  and  it  fell  to  her  lot  to  have  the 
greatest  influence  both  in  retarding  and,  ultimately, 
in  hastening  the  process. 


CHAPTER    III 

THE    REIGN   OF  HIENFUNG 

f  I  kHE  life  of  the  unlucky,  well-meaning  Emperor 
Taokwang  closed  in  the  second  month  of  1850, 
trouble  pursuing  him  to  the  end.  A  big  Mohamme- 
dan revolt  in  Kashgaria,  the  second  of  the  kind 
during  his  rule,  broke  out  in  1846,  and  was  only 
suppressed  after  merciless  severity  on  the  part  of 
the  Chinese  generals.  Seditious  movements  of  two 
great  secret  societies,  the  "  Triads "  in  the  South 
and  the  "  White  Lilies  "  in  the  North,  followed,  and 
paved  the  way  for  the  gigantic  Taiping  rebellion 
in  the  next  reign. 

The  successor  of  Taokwang  was  his  son  Yichu, 
through  marriage  with  whom  a  few  years  later 
Yehonala  was  enabled  to  play  her  part  in  the  world. 
Yichu  was  the  fourth  of  nine  sons,  of  whom  the 
three  eldest  had  all  died  before  their  father.  Succeed- 
ing to  the  throne  at  the  age  of  nineteen,  he  took, 
in  accordance  with  the  Chinese  Imperial  custom, 
a  reign-name,  by  which  he  is  known  to  history.  Just 
as  his  father,  originally  Prince  Mienning,  called 
himself  Taokwang,  "Glory  of  the  Reason,"  so  Yichu 
assumed  the  style  of  Hienfung,  "  Complete  Abund- 
ance." A  weak  but  obstinate  youth,  with  a  great 

18 


THE   REIGN   OF   HIENFUNG  19 

inclination  toward  the  pursuit  of  pleasure,  he  began 
very  early  to  show  his  character  by  dismissing  from 
office  the  advisers  in  whom  his  father  had  put  most 
trust,  and  replacing  them  by  favourites  of  his  own, 
the  chief  among  whom  were  his  nephew  Tsaiyuan, 
Prince  of  I  ;  Prince  Ching,  a  descendant  of  the 
Emperor  Kienlung ;  and  a  Manchu  Bannerman, 
Sushun,  a  bold  and  greedy  schemer,  very  tyrannical 
in  his  dealing  with  the  Chinese.  The  new  men, 
however,  were  quite  as  anti-foreign  as  their  prede- 
cessors, and  considerably  more  ignorant  and  narrow, 
in  consequence  of  which  the  disastrous  policy  of 
complete  isolation  for  China  and  non-intercourse 
with  the  "  barbarians "  was  maintained  even  more 
rigorously  than  under  Taokwang. 

One  of  Hienfung's  early  edicts  shows  him  apolo- 
gizing, in  approved  Chinese  fashion,  for  his  own 
demerits,  which  he  recognizes  as  the  cause  of  mis- 
fortunes to  his  people.  The  misfortunes  were 
certainly  present  in  abundance.  Hardly  had  he  been 
seated  on  the  throne  when  Foochow  city  shut  its 
gates  against  foreigners,  in  violation  of  the  Treaty 
of  Nanking  ;  famine  attacked  the  Peking  neighbour- 
hood, and  an  earthquake  did  great  damage  in 
Szechuan.  Moreover,  the  Taiping  agitation  began 
to  take  definite  shape  in  the  two  Kwang  provinces. 
Little  as  Hienfung  was  personally  responsible  for 
these  varied  troubles,  he  might  have  done  much,  had 
he  possessed  any  strength  of  character,  to  prevent 
the  spread  of  the  Taiping  movement,  which  was  soon 


20   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

to  give  his  discontented  subjects  so  great  an  oppor- 
tunity of  avenging  their  wrongs.  But,  having 
apologized  for  that  of  which  he  had  not  been  guilty, 
he  proceeded  to  the  commission  of  the  worst  of 
crimes  against  his  country  by  so  ruling  it  that  peace 
was  possible  neither  at  home  nor  abroad.  Or,  rather, 
it  should  be  said  that  he  let  China  be  ruled  thus,  not 
that  he  ruled  it  himself ;  for  least  of  all  the  Emperors 
of  his  dynasty  who  reached  the  years  of  manhood 
does  Hienfung  appear  to  have  taken  any  real  part  in 
the  government  of  China. 

If,  however,  Hienfung  was  in  himself  a  nonentity, 
he  took  one  step  which  profoundly  influenced  his 
Empire  and  furnished  it  with  the  most  capable  ruler 
which  it  has  known  since  the  days  of  Kienlung. 
Unfortunately  but  little  credit  is  due  to  him  for  this 
step,  since  all  that  he  did  was  to  set  eyes  upon  the 
Manchu  maiden  Yehonala,  and,  attracted  by  her  good 
looks,  make  her  a  favourite  in  his  harem. 

We  left  Yehonala  a  child  in  her  father's  home  in 
the  Tartar  City,  Peking,  growing  up  with  other 
members  of  a  young  family.1  About  the  beginning 
of  Heinfung's  reign,  when  she  was  in  her  fifteenth 
year,  she  was  taken,  like  all  Manchu  girls  of  Banner- 
man  family,  to  the  office  for  the  registration  of  such 
particulars  as  her  name,  family,  age,  looks,  and 

1  We  know  of  two  sisters,  one  the  wife  of  Prince  Chun,  the  other 
the  mother  of  the  celebrated  Yunglu  ;  while  the  "  Duke  "  Kwei, 
father  of  the  present  Empress  Dowager  (Kwanhgsu's  widow)  is 
described  as  favourite  brother  of  Her  Majesty  Tze-hi, 


THE   REIGN   OF   HIENFUNG  21 

abilities — which  office,  oddly,  was  the  Board  of 
Revenue  !  From  among  the  girls  thus  registered 
a  selection  is  made  later  for  the  Imperial  harem 
whenever  a  wife,  concubine,  or  serving-maid  is 
required.  Yehonala's  chief  qualification  seems  to 
have  been  her  beauty,  and  it  was  as  Imperial  concu- 
bine that  she  was  introduced  to  the  Palace.  As  many 
writers  upon  China  have  pointed  out,  there  is  no  idea 
of  disgrace  attached  to  the  Chinese  equivalent  for  the 
word  concubine.  A  subsidiary  wife  in  a  polygamous 
country  is  by  no  means  without  honour  ;  although 
in  China  the  first  wife  has  peculiar  privileges,  among 
them  being  the  right  of  being  considered  and  called 
mother  by  the  children  of  all  the  wives  of  her 
husband.  And  with  an  Imperial  concubine  still  less 
is  it  the  case  that  any  dishonour  is  involved  by  the 
post.  Her  lot  may  not  be  happy,  prisoner  as  she  is 
for  life  in  the  Palace,1  and  perhaps  never  even  looked 
at  twice  by  the  Emperor,  if  there  be  nothing  remark- 
able enough  in  her  appearance  to  attract  his  attention. 
Even  if  she  succeeds  in  drawing  the  notice  of  her 
lord,  her  lot  may  be  evil ;  for  the  harem  is  never 
without  its  intrigues  and  plots,  which  bring  ruin  to 
those  unskilled  in  the  game.  But  at  least  there  is  no 
stigma  on  a  girl  occupying  the  position  of  inferior 

1  "Once  in  the  Palace,"  Mrs.  Headland  was  told  by  the  mother 
of  two  girls,  first  and  second  concubines  to  the  Emperor  Kwanghsu, 
"  they  are  dead  to  me.  No  matter  what  they  may  suffer,  I  can  never 
see  them  nor  offer  them  a  word  of  comfort."  Mr.  Headland's  Court 
Life  in  China  contains  much  information  on  the  subject,  the  result  of 
the  observation  of  his  wife  and  himself. 


22    GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

wife  to  the  "  Solitary  Man  "  who  shares  the  Peking 
Palace  with  countless  women  and  eunuchs. 

The  date  on  which  Yehonala  entered  the  Hall  of 
the  Sacred  Precincts  on  her  way  to  the  harem  is 
unknown,  but  probably  she  was  about  sixteen  years 
of  age  at  the  time.  She  began  as  a  kwei-jen,  or  concu- 
bine of  the  fifth  rank.  It  is  impossible  to  obtain 
certain  figures,  but  it  has  been  stated1  that  an  Emperor 
may,  if  he  chooses,  have  in  addition  to  his  legal  wife 
as  many  as  two  hundred  and  eighty-one  concubines  : 
one  of  the  first  rank,  four  of  the  second,  seventy-two 
of  the  third,  eighty-four  of  the  fourth,  and  one 
hundred  and  twenty  of  the  fifth.  When  Hienfung 
became  Emperor  his  original  first  wife,  the  "  Queen 
Consort  of  the  Central  Palace,"  was  already  dead, 
without  leaving  him  a  child  ;  and  his  first  concubine, 
known  to  later  history  as  the  Empress  Tze-an,2  was 
made  Imperial  consort.  Yehonala,  who  afterwards 
shared  supreme  power  with  Tze-an,  therefore  started 
a  long  way  behind  her  rival  in  the  race.  But  early 
in  1854  she  was  promoted  from  fifth  to  fourth  rank 
among  the  concubines  ;  in  1856  she  went  up  another 

1  Unfortunately   I   am  unable  to   say  by  whom,  having  lost  the 
reference.     Professor   Giles,    answering    my   enquiry   of  him,  says  : 
"The   Imperial  harem  consists  of  the   Empress   and  five  grades  of 
concubines.     I  can  find  no  authority  for  the  number  of  women  in  each 
grade."     Professor  Headland  speaks  of  "  the  Imperial  household  of 
Emperor,    Empress,    sixty    concubines,    two   thousand   eunuchs,    and 
numberless  Court  ladies  and  maids." 

2  Professor  Parker  says,  China  Past  and  Tresent,  p.  137  :  "  I  be- 
lieve, but  I  do  not  know,  that  [the  Empresses]  only  obtained  the  titles 
Ts'z-hi  and  Ts'z-an  after  Hien-feng's  death." 


23 

step,  and  on  the  Chinese  New  Year's  Day  of  the 
following  year  yet  another,  leaving  her  second  only 
to  Tze-an  in  the  harem  of  Hienfung. 

For  this  rapid  advance  Yehonala  had  come  to  the 
Palace  apparently  ill-equipped  in  all  save  beauty, 
though  this  possession  was  a  valuable  means  of  appeal 
to  the  weak  and  sensual  Emperor.  Her  education, 
as  has  been  said  already,  was  very  slight.  But  she 
had  a  quick  intelligence  and  an  aptitude  for  learning. 
Under  the  tuition  of  the  well-educated  eunuchs  in 
whose  hands  the  instruction  of  the  Palace  ladies 
of  Peking  is  placed,  she  devoted  herself  assiduously 
to  the  proper  study  of  the  Chinese  language,  a  task 
notoriously  difficult  to  the  Chinese  themselves  and 
decidedly  not  less  difficult  to  the  Manchu  rulers  of 
China.  She  strove  hard  to  make  herself  a  good  pen- 
woman,  for  the  handling  of  the  pen — or,  to  be 
correct,  the  brush — is  highly  esteemed  in  China. 
She  began  to  make  herself  familiar  with  the  enor- 
mous literature  of  her  country  ;  and,  since  she  was 
gifted  with  an  unusually  good  memory  (even  in  a 
land  where  the  memory  is  so  cultivated  as  China), 
we  find  her  later  spoken  of  as  a  fine  scholar  in  the 
ancient  Classics. 

However,  it  was  not  to  her  intellectual  attainments 
any  more  than  to  her  mere  sensuous  attraction  for 
Hienfung  that  Yehonala  owed  her  rapid  promotion 
in  the  Palace  harem.  What  gave  her  importance 
in  the  Imperial  eyes  was  the  fact  that  on  April  27th, 
1856,  she  gave  birth  to  a  male  child,  afterwards  the 


24   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

Emperor  Tungchih.  This  infant  was  Hienfung's 
first-born,  or  at  least  his  first-born  son  ;  for  the 
Empress  Tze-an,  though  often  spoken  of  as  childless, 
seems  to  have  borne  her  husband  a  daughter,  who 
died  some  twenty  years  later.  The  Ta  Tsing  dynasty 
had  always  up  to  now  handed  over  the  throne  from 
father  to  son,  and  the  birth  of  a  male  child  to  Hien- 
fung  had  been  anxiously  awaited.  When,  therefore, 
Yehonala  presented  her  lord  with  that  which  he  so 
much  desired,  all  possible  honours  were  heaped  upon 
her,  and  in  less  than  a  year  she  sprang  to  the  position 
of  second  woman  in  the  Empire ;  then  in  another 
year's  time  a  title  was  found  for  her  for  which  no 
precedent  is  known  in  Chinese  history.  While 
Tze-an  was  styled  Empress  of  the  Eastern  Palace, 
or  Eastern  Empress,  the  former  concubine  Yehonala 
received  the  name  of  Empress  of  the  Western  Palace 
— the  apartments  which  they  occupied  lying  in  the 
North-east  and  North-west,  respectively,  of  the  For- 
bidden City. 

Few  things  are  more  remarkable  in  Yehonala's 
career  than  the  fact  that  she  and  the  Empress  Tze-an 
lived  together  in  harmony,  seemingly  from  the  time 
when  the  inferior  concubine  entered  the  Palace  down 
to  the  death  of  Tze-an  in  1881.  Life  in  the  harem 
is  supposed  to  be  attended  with  intense  jealousy 
among  the  female  inmates.  Indeed,  that  this  is  so 
has  been  only  too  often  proved  at  all  times  and  in  all 
parts  of  the  world.  Seeing  then  that  Hienfung's 
senior  wife,  Tze-an,  was  a  disappointed  woman  in 


FLORAL   DESIGN,   CHARACTERS,   AND    FOUR- 
LINE   POEM,   SIGNED   WITH   THE   SEAL  OF 
THE   EMPRESS   DOWAGER 

From  a  rubbing  of  the  original  inscription  on  stone  in  the 
province  of  Shensi) 


THE   REIGN   OF   HIENFUNG  25 

that  she  failed  to  give  her  husband  a  son,  and  that 
the  junior,  Yehonala,  struck  every  observer  later  in 
life  as  extremely  imperious,  we  might  have  expected 
bitter  enmity  between  the  two.  Instead  of  that 
we  find  them  firm  allies  as  soon  as  the  opportunity 
arose  for  them  to  show  with  what  sentiments  they 
regarded  each  other. 

Western  writers,  none  of  whom  ever  saw  the 
Empress  Tze-an,  differ  considerably  in  their  estimates 
of  her  character.  Some  make  her  out  to  have  been 
an  indolent  and  self-indulgent  person,  destitute  of 
any  ambition  except  to  secure  her  own  comfort ; 
others,  to  have  been  a  lady  of  literary  tastes,  gentle 
and  yielding  in  disposition,  and  more  or  less  an 
invalid.  It  is  clear  that,  in  either  case,  she  was  of  an 
easy  temper  and  by  nature  prepared  to  accept  the 
advances  made  by  her  rival.  That  Yehonala,  on  her 
part,  if  imperious  and  ambitious,  possessed  the  quality 
of  tact  in  a  high  degree  cannot  be  denied,  in  view  of 
her  marvellously  diplomatic  conduct  towards  the 
European  and  American  ladies  of  Peking  after 
the  Boxer  troubles  had  passed  away  in  1902.  This 
tact  she  now  showed,  nearly  fifty  years  earlier,  when 
she  reconciled  the  Empress  Tze-an  to  the  idea  of 
sharing  the  honours  of  Hienfung's  Palace  with  her 
on  terms  of  practical  equality. 

There  was  no  question  as  yet  of  the  Empresses 
exerting  political  influence.  Hienfung,  in  his  weak- 
ness, left  the  government  of  his  country  in  the  hands 
of  a  Court  clique,  including  a  number  of  elderly  and 


26   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

narrow-minded  members  of  the  Imperial  Clan  ;  but 
the  era  of  woman's  rule  had  not  yet  begun  at  Peking. 
The  first  eight  or  nine  years  of  her  palace  life, 
therefore,  can  have  given  Yehonala  little  acquaintance 
with  affairs  of  State,  though  the  gossip  of  the  hun- 
dreds of  little-occupied  inmates  of  the  Forbidden 
City  must  have  brought  to  the  innermost  apartments 
some  news,  however  distorted,  of  the  great  events 
proceeding  in  the  outer  world.  For  Hienfung's 
reign  was  an  unpleasantly  stirring  time  in  his  Empire. 
Soon  after  he  took  Yehonala  to  wife  the  Taiping 
rebels  commenced  their  invasion  of  Central  China 
and  captured  Nanking,  the  old  capital  of  the  early 
Ming  sovereigns,  to  hold  it  against  the  Imperial 
forces  for  the  better  part  of  eleven  years.  And  in 
the  year  when  Yehonala  bore  her  son  there  occurred 
the  Arrow  incident,  which  gave  its  name  to  China's 
second  foreign  war.  We  may  pass  over  the  Taipings 
for  the  present ;  but  it  is  necessary  to  pay  some  brief 
attention  to  the  Arrow  War,  since  it  led  to  events 
which  cannot  but  have  had  a  great  influence  over 
Yehonala's  future  views  of  the  world  and  political 
conduct. 

The  Canton  Government's  seizure  in  October, 
1856,  of  the  lorcha1  Arrow  when  she  was  flying 
the  British  flag  (although,  as  it  turned  out,  she  had 
forfeited  the  right  to  do  so,  and  it  is  quite  possible 
that  she  carried  among  her  crew  a  pirate  "  wanted  " 
at  Canton)  was  but  the  spark  that  kindled  an  explo- 

1  Lorcha,  a  Portuguese  term  for  a  fast  sailing  vessel. 


THE   REIGN   OF   HIENFUNG  27 

sion  which  had  been  long  preparing.  The  Cantonese 
populace  had  remained  bitterly  anti-foreign  after  the 
Treaty  of  Nanking.  Encouragement  was  given  to 
the  feeling  by  the  arrival  as  Viceroy  of  the  Kwang 
provinces  of  Yeh  Ming-chin,  whom  Wingrove 
Cooke  made  so  well  known  to  England  as  the 
infamous  "Commissioner  Yeh."1  Yeh,  one  of  the 
bad  type  of  Chinese  scholar,  narrow,  self-satisfied, 
horribly  cruel,  and  utterly  contemptuous  of  all  that 
was  not  Chinese,  was  soon  at  loggerheads  with  the 
British  Commissioner  of  Trade  at  Canton,  Sir  John 
Bowring,  himself  a  very  opinionated  man.  There 
were  abundant  grounds  for  trouble  ;  the  flourishing 
condition  of  the  opium-smuggling  trade,  helped  by 
the  nearness  to  Canton  of  the  free  port  of  Hong- 
kong, the  illicit  gun-running  in  the  interests  of  the 
Kwangtung  rebels  with  whom  Yeh  was  carrying  on  a 
terribly  bloody  struggle,  the  alleged  kidnapping  of 
Chinese  for  the  Portuguese  coolie-traffic,  the  dispute 
as  to  the  interpretation  of  an  agreement  opening  the 
gates  of  Canton  to  foreigners,  etc.  etc. 

On  the  British  side  there  was  ample  reason  for 
irritation  in  the  unceasing  opposition  offered  by  the 
Chinese  to  legitimate  trade,  in  the  constant  insults 
to  which  foreigners  were  subjected,  and  particularly 
in  the  Viceroy's  refusal  to  receive  any  representative 
of  Great  Britain  on  equal  terms  and  his  neglect  to 
suppress  the  publication  of  posters  calling  on  the 

1  China  in  18^-18^8^  reprinted  from  Cooke's  letters  to  the 
Times. 


28   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

people  of  Canton  to  massacre  the  "  barbarian  dogs." 
But  it  was  unfortunate  that  Great  Britain  chose  to 
make  a  casus  belli  of  what  Lord  Elgin  in  his  Journal 
rightly  calls  "  that  wretched  question  of  the  Arrow, 
which  is  a  scandal  to  us  and  is  so  considered,  I  have 
reason  to  know,  by  all  except  the  few  who  are  person- 
ally compromised."  As  in  the  case  of  the  Opium 
War,  so  in  that  of  the  Arrow  War,  this  country  was 
extremely  ill-advised  in  allowing  that  point  to  be 
brought  to  the  front  in  her  case  where  morally  she 
was  least  justified. 

Yeh  met  the  British  protests  and  demands  which 
followed  the  seizure  of  the  Arrow  with  evasions  and 
thinly  disguised  contempt.  Thereon  naval  operations 
against  the  Canton  River  defences  began,  the  Bogue 
forts  being  captured.  Admiral  Sir  Michael  Seymour 
even  penetrated  as  far  as  Canton  and  established  a 
footing  in  part  of  the  city,  but  was  not  in  sufficient 
strength  to  remain.  Yeh,  on  his  part,  offered  thirty 
dollars  for  English  heads,  burnt  down  the  factories, 
executed  a  few  foreigners,  and  had  their  heads  carried 
through  the  villages  of  Kwangtung.  To  Peking  he 
sent  news  of  his  victories  over  the  barbarians,  which 
doubtless  pleased  Hienfung.  But  the  Central  Govern- 
ment took  no  part  as  yet  in  the  war,  which  languished 
even  in  the  Canton  neighbourhood  owing  to  the  small- 
ness  of  the  British  forces. 

This  the  British  Government  determined  to 
remedy.  The  co-operation  of  France  was  secured, 
a  French  missionary  having  been  tortured  and  be- 


THE   REIGN   OF   HIENFUNG  29 

headed  by  official  order,  it  was  said,  in  Kwangsi,  and 
reparation  having  been  refused  at  Peking.  Britain 
appointed  Lord  Elgin,  France  Baron  Gros,  to  go  on 
a  mission  to  China  with  full  powers  to  settle  all 
matters  at  issue.  In  particular,  Lord  Elgin  was 
instructed  to  obtain  China's  assent  to  "  the  residence 
at  Peking,  or  the  occasional  visit  to  that  capital,  at 
the  option  of  the  British  Government,  of  a  Minister 
accredited  by  the  Queen  to  the  Emperor  of  China." 
This  part  of  his  task  Lord  Elgin  carried  out,  to  his 
own  great  credit,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  he  was  badly 
supported  by  other  nations  who  should  have  been 
equally  interested  in  bringing  China  to  reason  on  the 
point. 

Both  Britain  and  France  sent  strong  naval  and 
military  forces  to  support  their  plenipotentiaries. 
The  outbreak  of  the  Indian  Mutiny  delayed  the 
commencement  of  vigorous  hostilities,  but  before 
the  end  of  December,  1857,  Canton  was  in  the  hands 
of  the  Allies.  Yeh,  who  had  been  soothing  Peking 
with  descriptions  of  how  "  Elgin  passed  the  day  at 
Hongkong  stamping  his  foot  and  sighing,"  was  cap- 
tured as  he  tried  to  hoist  his  enormous  bulk  over 
a  wall  in  the  South-western  city,  and  was  carried  away 
a  prisoner  to  Calcutta,  where  he  died  two  years  later. 
He  was  no  loss  to  China.  Beside  being  responsible 
for  the  death  of  many  Europeans,  he  was  believed 
to  have  had  no  less  than  eighty  thousand  of  his  own 
countrymen  executed  as  rebels  at  Canton  in  the  year 
1855 


30   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

Turning  their  attention  North,  the  Allies,  when 
it  was  found  that  Peking  refused  to  appoint  any 
representatives  with  full  powers  to  treat  with  Elgin 
and  Gros,  sailed  up  the  Peiho  River,  captured  the 
Taku  forts,  and  occupied  Tientsin  for  the  first  time 
in  the  history  of  China. 

Hienfung  and  his  ignorant  advisers  had  apparently 
expected  the  British  and  French  to  wait  at  Canton, 
as  indeed  they  had  sent  orders  commanding  them  to 
do.  Now  the  appearance  of  the  Allied  army  so  near 
to  Peking  had  its  effect,  and  a  commission  of  three 
was  appointed  with  a  free  hand  to  deal  with  the 
Europeans,  one  of  the  three  being  Kweiliang,  a  sen- 
sible old  Manchu  official,  father-in-law  of  Hienfung's 
brother,  Prince  Kung.  After  considerable  delay  and 
some  curious  intriguing,  the  preliminaries  of  the 
Treaty  of  Tientsin  were  settled.  Elgin,  brushing 
aside  an  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  representatives 
of  Russia  and  the  United  States  (who  lent  passive 
support  to  Britain  and  France)  to  induce  him  to 
forego  demands  for  a  resident  minister  at  Peking 
and  permission  for  foreigners  to  trade  in  the 
interior  of  China,  took  up  a  firm  attitude  and 
terrified  the  Chinese  Commissioners  with  a  threat 
of  marching  on  Peking  if  they  opposed  these 
demands. 

On  July  4th,  1858,  the  Treaty  was  signed,  leaving 
tariff  matters  to  be  settled  later  at  Shanghai.  The 
Allies  retired  South  without  loss  of  time.  But  the 
Court  of  Peking  had  learnt  nothing  after  all,  it 


THE   REIGN   OF   HIENFUNG  31 

appeared.1  When  the  time  came  for  the  confirmation 
of  the  Treaty  next  summer,  strenuous  endeavours 
were  made  to  persuade  Great  Britain  and  France  to 
give  up  the  idea  of  a  ratification  at  Peking.  The 
Allies  lost  patience,  and  again  a  fleet  was  despatched 
to  the  mouth  of  the  Peiho.  Admiral  Hope  attempted 
to  sail  up,  but  met  with  disaster,  losing  three  gun- 
boats and  three  hundred  men.  Now  an  apology  and 
an  indemnity  were  demanded  from  China,  in  addition 
to  the  ratification  of  the  Treaty.  But  the  Court  was 
emboldened  by  the  foreigners'  failure  to  pass  the  Taku 
defences,  and  declined  to  consider  the  demands.  An 
invasion  of  Chihli  and  a  march  on  Peking  itself  were 
resolved  on,  as  soon  as  sufficient  troops  could  be 
collected.  This  was  not  until  the  summer  of  1860. 
The  Taku  forts  having  been  captured  and  Tientsin 
again  occupied,  Kweiliang  appeared  and  expressed 
himself  willing  on  behalf  of  China  to  come  to  terms. 
Owing  to  his  unsparing  recourse  to  the  evasion  and 
delays  which  are  such  weapons  in  the  armoury  of 

1  There  was  this  much  to  be  said  for  the  Court,  however.  The 
settlement  of  1858,  which  Britain  and  France  forced  upon  China  at 
the  point  of  the  sword,  compelled  the  recognition  of  the  right  of  those 
countries  to  keep  resident  ministers  in  Peking  ;  affirmed  the  principle 
of  exterritoriality,  and  provided  that  foreigners  might  travel  in  the 
interior  of  China  without  submitting  to  her  laws ;  and  legalized  the 
importation  of  opium  on  payment  of  proper  chest.  Against  the  idea 
of  any  of  those  concessions  the  Court  had  protested  bitterly.  Did  it 
consider  itself  morally  bound  to  carry  out  the  Treaty  extorted  by 
violence  ?  But  we  can  imagine  the  sneer  with  which  most  foreigners 
would  have  greeted  the  notion  that  Peking  had  a  conscience  in 
1858. 


32    GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

Chinese  diplomatists,  the  Allies  early  in  September 
started  out  overland  for  Peking. 

Now  Tsaiyuan,  Prince  of  I,  came  on  the  scene  and 
claimed  to  have  full  powers  to  negotiate.  While  not 
declining  to  recognize  him,  the  Allies  kept  on  their 
way  until  they  found  it  barred  at  Changkiawan  by 
a  large  army  under  Sankolinsin,  a  Mongol  general 
who  had  made  for  himself  a  reputation  against  the 
Taipings,  and  was  popularly  known  to  Europeans 
as  "  Sam  Collinson."  Negotiations  continued  with 
every  appearance  of  sincerity,  but  were  suddenly 
interrupted  by  the  gross  act  of  treachery  which  led 
to  the  seizure  of  Messrs.  Parkes  and  Loch  and  the 
other  members  of  a  party  sent  to  arrange  for  a  meet- 
ing between  the  Chinese  and  foreign  Commissioners, 
and  the  barbarous  torture  of  all  and  murder  of  a 
number  of  them — on  whose  responsibility  it  was 
never  decided,  though  the  Mongol  general  certainly 
encouraged  their  ill-treatment.  The  capture  of  the 
envoys  was  followed  by  a  battle,  which  ended  in  the 
rout  of  the  brutal  Sankolinsin's  army.  Pressing  on, 
the  Allies  inflicted  another  defeat  on  the  Chinese 
at  Palikao,  a  bridge  crossing  the  Peiho  near  the  town 
of  Tungchow,  about  ten  miles  from  Peking,  and  had 
now  no  enemy  left  between  themselves  and  the  gates 
of  the  capital.  They  were  unprepared,  however, 
for  an  assault  on  the  powerful  walls,  and  were  obliged 
therefore  to  call  a  halt,  while  sending  peremptory 
demands  for  the  release  of  the  prisoners.  Yet 
another  representative  of  China  took  up  the  negotia- 


THE   REIGN   OF   HIENFUNG  33 

tions  now.  This  was  Prince  Kung,  whose 
acquaintance  from  this  moment  with  the  men  of 
the  West  was  to  benefit  his  country  so  greatly. 
About  twenty-eight  years  of  age,  he  had  recently 
become  a  member  of  the  Li  Fan  Yuen  or  Colonial 
Office,  which  in  those  days  of  Chinese  enlightenment 
was  entrusted  with  matters  concerning  the  "  Ocean 
Barbarians."  Married  to  the  daughter  of  Kweiliang, 
a  Manchu  of  ability  and  unusual  courtesy  towards 
foreigners,  Prince  Kung  may  have  learnt  some  of  his 
address  from  his  father-in-law. 

The  first  intimation  which  the  British  and  French 
Commissioners  received  of  Prince  Kung's  intervention 
was  a  letter  from  him,  asking  for  a  truce  and  inform- 
ing them  that  he  had  been  appointed  plenipotentiary 
for  China.  The  letter  was  correct.  Hienfung  and 
his  counsellors  had  been  plunged  in  despair  by  the 
defeat  of  Sankolinsin,  who  had  promised  them  to 
sweep  the  invaders  into  the  sea.  Fearful  lest  the 
terrible  barbarians  should  capture  him  in  Peking, 
the  Emperor  resolved  on  flight.  About  a  hundred 
miles  to  the  North-east  of  Peking,  in  that  portion  of 
Chihli  province  which  lies  beyond  the  Great  Wall 
and  is  Mongolian  rather  than  Chinese  in  character, 
there  was  a  small  fortified  town  called  Jehol,  where 
there  was  an  Imperial  hunting-box.  Giving  out  that 
he  was  going  on  an  autumn  hunting  expedition — 
for  appearances  must  be  preserved — Hienfung  collected 
together  his  Court  and  his  harem,  wives,  concubines, 
and  all,  and  set  out  hastily  for  Jehol.  Prince  Kung 


34   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

stayed  behind  at  the  Summer  Palace  a  few  miles  out- 
side Peking,  with  instructions  to  make  the  best  terms 
possible  with  the  barbarians.  In  entrusting  this  task 
to, his  brother  Hienfung  perhaps  committed  the  only 
wise  political  act  of  his  life. 

Yet  at  first  Kung's  prospects  of  appeasing  the 
invaders  did  not  seem  promising.  Although  they 
did  not  feel  strong  enough  to  attack  Peking  itself 
without  being  reinforced,  the  Anglo-French  troops 
were  not  kept  inactive.  They  marched  on  the 
Summer  Palace,  their  outposts  all  but  capturing 
the  Prince  before  he  could  escape  through  a  back 
gate.  He  made  his  way  safely  to  Peking,  however, 
and  on  the  renewed  demand  of  the  Allies  set  free  the 
prisoners  whom  Sankolinsin  had  taken.  What  hap- 
pened next  is  never  likely  to  be  forgotten  in  the 
history  of  European-Chinese  relations.  The  narra- 
tives of  the  survivors  and  the  production  of  the 
bodies  of  those  who  had  been  murdered  caused  such 
outburst  of  feeling  in  the  Allied  camp  that  Lord 
Elgin  was  moved  to  order  the  destruction  of  the 
Summer  Palace,  in  some  of  the  rooms  of  which 
the  captives  had  undergone  torture,  and  where  some 
of  the  murdered  men's  clothes  were  found. 

This  Summer  Palace  of  the  Manchu  Emperors 
was  in  the  Yuen  Ming  Yuen  or  "  Round  Bright 
Garden,"  a  vast  park  laid  out  in  the  approved  Chinese 
fashion  with  lakes,  bridges,  pavilions,  temples,  and 
beautiful  trees  and  shrubs.  The  main  buildings 
were  the  work  of  Jesuit  architects  at  Peking  in  the 


THE   REIGN   OF  HIENFUNG  35 

eighteenth  century,  and  at  the  time  of  the  Allies' 
arrival  they  and  their  annexes  were  full  of  treasures 
worth  at  least  a  million  pounds,  presents  from  Euro- 
pean sovereigns  to  various  Emperors,  tribute  in  kind 
from  the  provinces,  rolls  of  silk,  gold  ornaments  and 
jewellery,  jade,  porcelain  vases,  magnificent  furs,  and 
most  valuable  furniture.  On  the  day  on  which  the 
first  troops  arrived,  the  French  and  some  Sikh  cavalry, 
looting  began — and  not  only  looting,  but  wholesale 
and  wanton  smashing  and  trampling  under  foot  for 
the  pleasure  of  destruction.  Lord  Elgin  himself 
was  shocked  by  the  appearance  of  the  Palace  on  the 
day  of  his  arrival  ;  but  looting  continued,  if  in  a 
more  systematic  and  less  wasteful  manner.  Finally 
the  order  came  for  the  firing  of  the  buildings  to 
commemorate  what  had  been  done  to  the  English 
and  French  captives.  "As  almost  all  the  valuables 
had  already  been  taken  from  the  Palace,"  remarks 
Elgin  in  his  Journal,  "  the  army  would  go  there  not 
to  pillage,  but  to  mark  by  a  solemn  act  of  retribution 
the  horror  and  indignation  with  which  we  were 
inspired  by  the  perpetration  of  a  great  crime." 

The  argument  is  weak.  The  Congo  atrocities 
would  not  have  been  expiated  by  the  burning  of  the 
late  King  Leopold's  Palace  at  Ostend,  nor  did  even 
the  fact  of  tortures  having  taken  place  in  the  Yuen 
Ming  Yuen  make  it  a  rational  thing  to  give  warning 
against  murder  by  the  destruction  of  a  fine  historical 
monument  such  as  the  Summer  Palace  was. 

Lord   Elgin  was  right,  however,  in  expecting  his 


36   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

deed  to  impress  the  Chinese  Court.  In  the  course 
of  the  conflagration  several  other  Imperial  villas  were 
burnt,  which  added  to  the  effect.  A  threat  is  said  to 
have  been  made  of  further  burnings  in  Peking  itself. 
The  Court  did  not  wait  for  this.  Two  days  after 
the  match  was  set  to  the  Summer  Palace,  Prince 
Kung  notified  that  his  Government  would  concede 
every  demand,  including  one  for  an  indemnity  for  the 
murdered  and  tortured  envoys  and  their  escort.  On 
October  24th  the  ratifications  of  the  Tientsin  Treaty 
of  1858,  with  the  fresh  additions,  were  exchanged  at 
the  offices  of  the  Board  of  Rites  in  Peking  by  Lord 
Elgin  and  Prince  Kung,  and  on  the  following  day  the 
French  Treaty  was  similarly  ratified. 

China  had  now  agreed,  among  other  things,  to 
permit  the  residence  at  Peking  of  representatives 
of  Great  Britain  and  France,  to  pay  an  enormous 
indemnity,  and  to  open  a  number  of  new  ports, 
including  Tientsin.  Britain  obtained  the  cession  of 
a  portion  of  the  mainland  opposite  Hongkong  ;  and 
France  (who  already  in  the  Treaty  of  1858  had 
inserted — illegally,  as  the  Chinese  claimed — a  clause 
permitting  missionaries  to  reside  and  travel  in  the 
interior)  a  far-reaching  promise  of  indemnification  to 
Roman  Catholics  for  all  Church  property  and  land 
which  had  ever  been  owned  by  them  in  China,  the 
money  to  be  handed  over  to  the  French  representative 
at  Peking. 

Before  withdrawing  the  troops  the  Anglo-French 
Commissioners  insisted  on  the  issue  of  an  edict  from 


THE   REIGN  OF   HIENFUNG  37 

the  Emperor  commanding  the  publication  of  the 
terms  of  the  two  treaties.  In  order  to  rid  Peking 
of  the  invaders,  Hienfung  reluctantly  complied  ;  but 
on  the  retirement  of  the  Allies  he  showed  no  anxiety 
to  return  to  the  Forbidden  City.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  that  Hienfung  and  his  ministers  had  been 
genuinely  terrified  by  the  advance  of  the  "  bar- 
barians "  on  Peking,  for  China's  capitals  had  too 
often  seen  the  fall  of  historic  dynasties  before  the 
armies  of  the  rude  outer  nations.  And  whether  or 
not  the  latest  invaders  contemplated  subversion  of 
the  Empire,  at  any  rate  they  had  extorted  from  the 
Emperor  his  consent  to  the  presence,  within  a  short 
distance  of  his  Palace,  of  representatives  of  their 
sovereigns'  claims  to  equality  with  himself.  The 
blow  to  Celestial  pride  was  tremendous,  and  it  may 
be  imagined  that  all  inmates  of  the  Imperial  harem  at 
this  time  were  imbued  with  a  strong  hatred,  com- 
bined with  fear,  of  the  impious  wretches  who  had 
flouted  the  commands  of  the  Son  of  Heaven  and 
proposed  now  to  desecrate  his  capital  by  residing  in 
it  permanently. 

The  Empress  of  the  Western  Palace,  therefore, 
received  her  first  practical  lesson  as  to  the  character 
of  the  nations  beyond  the  seas  in  a  manner  calculated 
to  inspire  her  with  a  deep  aversion  from  them.  Did 
she  look  back,  in  1900,  we  may  wonder,  when  in 
the  company  of  her  Emperor-nephew  she  sped 
South-west  over  the  seven  hundred  miles  which 
separated  Sianfu  from  Peking,  on  her  hurried  flight 


38   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

in  the  opposite  direction  forty  years  earlier,  dragged 
in  the  train  of  her  terrified  Emperor-husband  ? 
There  was  certainly  a  similarity  in  the  two  cases 
which  might  cause  the  recollection  of  Jehol  to  rise  in 
her  mind  as  she  hastened  to  bury  herself  in  distant 
Shensi.  But  in  1860  she  was  a  victim  of  the  in- 
ability of  others  to  understand  the  barbarians  ;  in 
1900  she  was  herself  to  blame  for  her  own  sufferings. 


CHAPTER   IV 

THE    EMPRESS    ENTERS   POLITICAL    LIFE 

OEKING  in  the  early  part  of  1861  was  full  of 
rumours.  Sir  Frederick  Bruce  took  up  his  post 
in  March  as  first  resident  British  Minister  at  the 
Chinese  capital.  It  was  felt  by  the  natives  that  the 
contaminating  presence  of  a  barbarian  envoy,  forcibly 
established  in  Peking,  might  have  the  effect  of  keep- 
ing the  Court  at  Jehol,  and  it  was  reported  that 
Hienfung  contemplated  transferring  the  seat  of 
government  permanently  thither.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  members  of  the  Eight  Banners,  who  de- 
pended for  subsistence  on  the  allowance  made  to 
them  while  the  Emperor  was  resident  in  Peking, 
were  known  to  be  most  anxious  for  his  return  to 
rescue  them  from  the  beggary  which  threatened 
them  ;  and  it  was  difficult  to  see  how  Hienfung  could 
resist  the  pressure  of  the  Bannermen. 

The  most  serious  rumour,  however,  was  to  the 
effect  that  the  Emperor's  health  was  growing  pre- 
carious— some  said  because  of  continual  debauchery 
in  which  he  lived,  others  that  the  severity  of  the 
winter  at  Jehol  had  broken  down  a  constitution 
already  damaged  by  excess.  It  was  suspected  that 
certain  people  were  interested  in  encouraging  him 

39 


40   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

along  the  road  to  ruin  ;  and,  as  might  be  expected,  it 
is  one  of  the  charges  brought  against  the  Empress 
Dowager  by  her  enemies  later  that  she  assisted  her 
husband  to  his  death.  However,  the  secret  history 
of  the  Jehol  intrigue  can  never  be  known.  It  seems 
a  necessary  supposition  that  the  Eastern  and  Western 
Empresses,  prepared  beforehand  for  the  death  of 
their  joint  husband,  decided  to  look  for  a  man  to 
protect  them  against  the  danger  threatening  them 
from  the  camarilla  in  whose  hands  Hienfung  in- 
tended to  leave  the  government  during  the  minority 
of  his  successor.  In  that  case  it  was  obvious  that 
Prince  Kung,  leader  of  the  most  enlightened  poli- 
ticians at  Peking,  was  their  best  hope,  since,  on  other 
grounds  than  his  liberalism,  he  had  a  strong  backing 
among  the  Manchus  outside  the  clique  in  whom  the 
Emperor  put  his  trust.  It  is  possible,  however,  that 
Prince  Kung  made  the  first  advances  ;  because, 
powerful  though  his  position  was  in  Peking  as  long 
as  his  brother  lived  and  retained  the  throne,  he  had 
arrayed  against  him  the  leading  members  of  the  Im- 
perial clan,  and  was  likely  to  be  very  badly  placed 
after  Hienfung's  death  unless  he  could  secure  some 
friends  among  those  in  possession  of  the  person  of 
Hienfung's  infant  son. 

Whatever  were  the  negotiations  which  preceded 
the  understanding  between  the  two  Empresses  and 
their  brother-in-law,  early  in  August  Prince  Kung 
hastened  secretly  to  Jehol.  Here  he  found  the 
Emperor  on  the  point  of  death,  and  his  old  advisers 


THE  EMPRESS  ENTERS  POLITICAL  LIFE  41 

in  command  of  the  situation.  On  August  22nd 
Hienfung  died,  leaving  behind  him  an  Imperial 
Decree  in  which  the  government,  until  his  son 
should  come  of  age,  was  entrusted  to  a  Council  of 
Regency  consisting  of  Prince  I  as  president,  Prince 
Ching,  Sushun,  and  five  other  Manchus.  The  new 
Emperor  was  proclaimed  under  the  reign-name  of 
Chihsiang,  "  Lucky  Omen,"  and  the  Regents  pre- 
pared to  establish  themselves  firmly  in  power  before 
proceeding  to  Peking  with  him.  During  September 
and  October  they  remained  at  Jehol,  while  Prince 
Kung  was  sent  back  to  his  post  at  the  head  of  the 
Tsungli  Yamen,1  the  new  Foreign  Office  just  set  up 
on  his  own  suggestion  to  look  after  the  affairs  of  the 
barbarians.  Here,  it  was  felt,  he  would  be  con- 
veniently buried. 

As  to  the  intentions  of  the  Regents,  we  have  only 
the  accusations  of  their  enemies.  They  are  charged 
with  planning  to  put  out  of  the  way  the  Dowager 
Empresses,  together  with  Prince  Kung  and  his 
younger  brothers,  so  as  to  have  no  obstacle  left  in 
the  way  of  complete  control  of  affairs  by  themselves. 
At  the  end  of  October  seven  of  them  set  out  for 
Peking,  taking  with  them  the  little  Emperor  and  the 
two  Empresses.  Sushun  remained  to  escort  from 
Jehol  the  body  of  Hienfung.  But,  if  they  were 

1  Its  full  title  was  Tsung-li  Ko-kwoh  Shi-wu  Yamen,  which 
Professor  Parker  translates,  word  for  word,  "  Generally-managing  All- 
countries'  Business  -  matters  Praetorium "  (China  Past  and  "Present, 
p.  208). 


42   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

guilty  of  the  plot  of  which  they  are  accused,  they 
had  reckoned  without  the  Empresses.  These  ladies 
communicated  to  Prince  Kung  their  suspicions,  and 
it  was  decided  to  strike  at  once  a  blow  which  should 
stop  the  Regents'  power  for  harm.  By  some  means 
possession  must  have  been  obtained  of  the  Great 
Seal,  for  there  suddenly  appeared  two  edicts  in  the 
Emperor's  name,  one  suspending  the  whole  Council 
of  Regency  from  office,  and  the  other  appointing  the 
Empresses  regents  instead.  With  the  former  edict 
in  his  hand  Prince  Kung,  who  had  already  taken  the 
precaution  of  bringing  into  camp  outside  Peking 
some  troops  on  whom  he  knew  he  could  rely,  walked 
into  the  Council,  informed  the  members  of  the  order 
attributed  to  the  Emperor,  and  demanded  whether 
they  intended  to  obey.  There  was,  of  course,  no 
alternative,  and  Princes  I  and  Ching  at  once  sub- 
mitted to  arrest.  While  Prince  Kung  was  thus 
securing  two  of  his  chief  enemies,  his  next  brother 
Prince  Chun  (whose  first  appearance  in  history  this 
is)  had  set  out  to  intercept  Sushun  on  his  way  from 
Jehol.  Sushun,  it  was  said,  had  so  far  forgotten  pro- 
priety as  to  give  himself  up  to  debauchery  while 
engaged  on  his  mission  of  conducting  Hienfung's 
body  to  the  capital.  Prince  Chun  came  upon  him  by 
night  and  arrested  him  in  bed.  As  soon  as  he  was 
brought  back  to  Peking,  the  trial  of  the  three  princi- 
pal ex-Regents  commenced.  Accused  of  high  treason, 
all  three  were  condemned  to  execution,  Sushun  by 
the  painful  process  of  ling-chih,  or  "  death  by  the 


THE  EMPRESS  ENTERS  POLITICAL  LIFE  43 

thousand  cuts."  On  the  intercession  of  the  Em- 
presses, it  was  reported,  more  merciful  punishments 
were  inflicted.  The  Princes  were  graciously  allowed 
to  hang  themselves  in  their  cells,  and  Sushun  was 
taken  to  the  market-place,  which  serves  as  Peking's 
execution-ground,  and  there  beheaded,  to  the  great 
joy  of  the  populace,  by  whom  he  was  bitterly  hated. 

By  this  bold  stroke  China  was  rid  of  the  band  of 
evil  rulers  which  Hienfung  had  imposed  upon  her, 
and  Prince  Kung  and  the  two  Empresses  were  left 
complete  masters  of  the  situation.  The  credit  for 
the  conception  of  the  scheme  possibly  belongs  to  the 
Prince.  But  the  brilliant  strategy  shown  at  the  big 
political  crises  of  1875  and  1898  might  tempt  us  to 
see  now,  too,  the  hand  of  Yehonala,  or  Tze-hi,  as  we 
may  call  her  henceforward,  this  title  apparently  being 
decreed  to  her  after  she  became  joint  Regent  with 
the  Empress  Tze-an.  Tze-hi  was  only  just  twenty- 
six  years  of  age,  and  had  up  to  now  no  experience  in 
the  conduct  of  great  affairs,  whereas  Prince  Kung 
had  shown  his  skill  in  his  management  of  China's 
relations  with  the  Western  Powers.  Still,  the  young 
Empress  was  soon  to  show  that  she  was  by  no  means 
a  puppet  in  the  hands  of  her  brother-in-law,  and 
there  is  nothing  which  directly  proves  that  the  stroke 
of  1 86 1  was  his  rather  than  hers. 

The  change  of  government  at  Peking  was  wel- 
comed by  foreign  observers,  the  old  Regency  being 
notoriously  anti-foreign ;  and  great  hopes  were 
entertained  that  an  era  of  friendliness  on  the  part 


44  GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

of  China  was  about  to  open.  Such  hopes  were 
doomed  to  be  disappointed,  however,  for  the  new 
rulers  were  no  more  pro-foreign  than  those  whom 
they  had  succeeded.  The  difference  was  that  they — 
or  some  of  them,  notably  Prince  Kung  and  Wen- 
siang,  a  Manchu  who  was  known  to  have  assisted 
the  Prince  in  the  late  revolution  and  was  now  a 
member  of  the  Grand  Secretariat,1  as  well  as  of  the 
Tsungli  Yamen — knew  more  about  foreigners  and 
how  to  deal  with  them,  not  that  they  loved  them 
better  than  Prince  I  and  his  associates  had  done. 
Prince  Kung  made  concessions  to  the  "  barbarians  " 
because  he  appreciated  their  brute  force,  and  if  to  him 
is  rightly  attributed  the  institution  of  the  Imperial 
Tungwen  College  at  Peking,  designed  to  give  the 
literary  men  of  China  some  acquaintance  with 
Western  learning,  his  object  was  to  prepare  his 
fellow-countrymen  to  carry  on  the  struggle  against 
the  intrusion  of  the  nations  of  the  West.  As  for 
the  Empresses  Tze-hi  and  Tze-an,  it  is  impossible  to 
credit  them  with  any  leaning  toward  the  foreigner 
with  whom  their  nearest  acquaintance  was  derived 
from  the  hurried  flight  to  Jehol  when  the  Allies 
marched  on  Peking. 

In  order  to  efface  as  far  as  possible  all  memory  of 
the  three  months  which  followed  Hienfung's  death, 

1  The  Grand  Secretariat  and  Grand  Council,  as  they  are  usually 
called  in  English,  are  both  in  a  sense  Cabinets.  The  Secretariat  (by 
law  half  Manchu,  half  Chinese)  is  the  much  older  body ;  but  the 
Council,  though  only  founded  in  1730,  grew  to  be  practically  the 
more  important. 


THE  EMPRESS  ENTERS  POLITICAL  LIFE  45 

the  young  Emperor  was  given  a  new  reign-name.  In 
place  of  Chihsiang  he  was  now  called  Tungchih, 
"  Union  Rule  "  or  "  Joint  Government,"  in  honour 
of  the  combined  regency  of  his  nominal  and  natural 
mothers.  As  he  was  only  five  years  old,  the  Empresses 
Regent  and  Prince  Kung  could  look  forward  to  a  long 
period  at  the  head  of  affairs,  provided  that  they  could 
maintain  their  authority  in  China  and  steer  clear  of  a 
serious  collision  with  the  West.  For  the  latter  task, 
as  has  been  said,  they  were  far  better  equipped  than 
those  who  had  gone  before  them.  With  regard  to 
their  rule  at  home,  the  Chinese  are  so  docile  a  people, 
under  any  government  that  is  not  extremely  bad, 
that  they  would  have  had  little  difficulty  had  it  not 
been  for  the  existence  of  two  rebellions  left  over  from 
the  last  reign — one  confined  to  the  Mohammedans 
of  Western  China,  and  the  other  the  celebrated  Taiping 
rising,  which  had  continued  throughout  Hienfung's 
eleven  years,  and  was  apparently  as  far  as  ever  from 
suppression  when  the  reign  of  Tungchih  began. 

The  Panthay  revolt,  as  the  movement  among  the 
Mohammedans  of  Yunnan  is  sometimes  called,  is  of  no 
importance  to  the  history  of  Tze-hi.  But  the  devas- 
tating Taiping  rebellion,  involving  so  much  that 
concerns  the  relations  of  China  and  the  outside 
world,  demands  some  attention  here.  The  Taiping 
propaganda  combined  in  a  strange  way  Chinese  and 
Western  elements.  The  semi-Christianity  of  their 
tenets  gained  for  the  rebels  the  sympathy  of  great 
numbers  of  Europeans  and  Americans,  and  this  fact 


46   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

and  the  active  help  given  by  a  few  foreigners  to  the 
rebel  cause  undoubtedly  served  to  leave  the  Chinese, 
at  the  end  of  the  struggle,  with  an  increased  grudge 
against  Christianity  and  foreigners. 

Hung  Hsiu-tsuan,  the  founder  of  the  Kingdom 
of  the  "Great  Peace"  and  thus  author  of  the  most 
horrible  war  which  ever  ravaged  his  country,  was 
the  son  of  a  farmer  living  in  a  village  about  thirty 
miles  from  Canton.  His  family,  like  the  rest  of 
the  villagers,  belonged  to  the  race  of  Hakkas 
("  strangers  "),  those  Northern  immigrants  who  form 
about  a  third  of  the  population  of  Kwangtung 
province  and  keep  distinct  in  blood,  customs,  dress, 
and  language1  from  the  Puntis,  the  original  Chinese  in- 
habitants of  Kwangtung.  A  diligent  student  from  early 
years,  Hung  had  cherished  reasonable  expectations  of 
an  honourable  career,  but  for  some  reason  he  failed 
several  times  to  pass  his  Hsiu-tsai  ("budding  genius  ") 
or  B.A.  examination.  On  one  occasion,  it  is  said,  he 
met  a  Christian  convert  who  was  distributing  tracts 
among  the  candidates.  Hung  accepted  a  pamphlet 
entitled  "  Good  Words  of  Exhortation  for  the  Age," 
containing  a  number  of  translations  from  the  Christian 
Bible,  and  took  it  home  to  his  village.  He  had  not 
read  it,  however,  when  he  next  went  up  to  Canton 
for  his  degree.  As  he  was  once  more  "  ploughed  " — 

1  For  example,  when  I  lived  in  Hongkong,  I  had  occasion  to 
call  in  a  plumber  to  repair  my  bath-room  floor,  and  requested  my 
"  boy  "  to  give  him  the  necessary  instructions.  Ahoy  replied,  "  My 
no  can  talkee.  He  belong  Hakka  !  " 


THE  EMPRESS  ENTERS  POLITICAL  LIFE   47 

though  unjustly,  it  is  said1 — he  returned  home  and 
took  to  his  bed,  being  there  visited  by  extraordinary 
visions  and  imagining  that  he  was  one  day  to  be 
Emperor  of  China.  However,  when  he  recovered 
he  became  instead  a  schoolmaster,  combining  this 
profession  rather  oddly  with  fortune-telling.  In  1843 
he  made  his  last  attempt  to  pass  the  B.A.  examina- 
tion, with  the  same  result  as  before.  In  his  despon- 
dency he  listened  to  the  advice  of  a  relation,  who 
wished  him  to  read  the  "  Good  Words  of  Exhorta- 
tions." Doing  so,  he  thought  that  he  had  solved  the 
mystery  of  his  wonderful  visions,  and  he  and  his 
relation  proceeded  to  baptize  themselves  and  to 
seek  for  converts  to  the  religion  which  they  made 
their  own. 

Hung  at  first  called  the  society  which  he  founded 
the  Shang-ti  Hui  or  "  Association  of  God,"  and  his 
original  teaching  was  distinctively  Christian.  An 
American  Baptist  missionary  in  Canton,  by  name 
Roberts,  tried  to  gain  control  over  him  and  enrol  him 
in  his  own  sect,  but  after  two  months  Hung  left 
without  waiting  to  be  baptized  by  the  American. 
His  doctrines  began  now  to  take  on  a  rather  different 
colour,  and  to  show  an  anti-dynastic  tendency, 

1  Such  things  do  happen  in  China,  that  land  of  examinations. 
Not  a  dozen  years  ago  a  high  official  in  Canton,  having  purchased 
tickets  in  the  lottery  which  is  got  up  in  connection  with  the  examina- 
tion, unfairly  used  his  influence  to  have  the  candidates  whose  names  he 
had  drawn  placed  at  the  top  of  the  list.  It  must  be  added  that  the 
Viceroy  of  the  two  Kwang  provinces,  when  the  story  reached  his 
ears,  had  the  fraudulent  official  beheaded. 


48    GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

attracting  to  him  therefore  some  members  of  the 
Triad  Society,  sworn  supporters  of  the  old  Ming 
dynasty  and  enemies  of  the  Manchus.  He  also  cut 
his  followers  off  from  the  use  of  tobacco,  opium,  or 
alcohol,  forbade  them  to  offer  worship  to  images 
in  the  village  temples  (thereby  giving  offence  to  the 
remaining  inhabitants  of  the  villages),  and  enjoined 
the  keeping  of  a  Sabbath  day.  By  1848  he  had 
between  two  and  three  thousand  disciples  in  the 
Kwang  provinces,  and  the  number  was  constantly 
growing,  in  spite  of  the  hostility  of  the  non-Hakka 
population.  The  authorities  having  become  sus- 
picious, two  years  later  he  moved  with  his  family 
to  Kwangsi,  and  now  it  was  not  long  before  an  open 
revolt  was  declared.  Hung's  followers,  in  obedience 
to  his  command,  clad  themselves  in  the  open-fronted 
Ming  dress  (familiar  to  Europeans  on  vases  and  in 
paintings)  and  cut  off  their  queues,  gaining  for  them- 
selves thereby  the  name  of  Chang-mao  tseh  or 
"  long-haired  rebels."  Joined  by  bandits  and  other 
disorderly  characters  from  all  over  the  two  Kwang 
provinces,  mostly  Hakkas,  Hung  found  himself 
in  command  of  quite  an  army,  and  decided  on  taking 
the  field  actively  against  the  Government.  He  had 
now  no  doubts  as  to  his  divine  mission,  and  over- 
awed his  motley  following  of  religious  fanatics, 
secret  society  men,  and  fugitives  from  justice  with 
revelations  which  he  claimed  to  have  received  direct 
from  the  Tien-fu  and  Tien-hiung^  the  "  Heavenly 
Father"  and  "Heavenly  Elder  Brother."  After 


THE  EMPRESS  ENTERS  POLITICAL  LIFE  49 

some  successes  against  the  outnumbered  and  ill-led 
Imperial  troops — enrolled  on  the  fatal  principle  of 
the  Chinese  maxim  :  "  Make  your  soldiers  of  your 
worst  men,  as  you  make  your  nails  of  your  worst 
iron  " — he  proclaimed  himself  Emperor  of  the  Tai- 
ping  Tien-kwo  ("Great  Peace  Celestial  Empire") 
dynasty,  from  the  first  part  of  which  appellation  his 
rebellion  takes  its  name.  He  also  assumed  the  title 
of  the  Tien-wang  or  Heavenly  King,  producing  a 
"  Celestial  Decree  "  in  which  he  was  so  styled. 

Hung's  ignorant  adherents  easily  accepted  their 
leader's  claims.  A  kind  of  religious  mania  spread 
through  their  ranks,  and  many  among  them  began 
to  see  visions  and  go  off  into  trances.  This  increased 
their  prestige  throughout  the  countryside,  and  the 
peasantry  credited  them  with  miraculous  powers, 
including  the  ability  to  cut  out  regiments  of  paper 
soldiers,  breathe  upon  them,  and  take  them  into 
battle  with  them  as  comrades — just  as  later  the 
Northern  peasantry  believed  that  the  Boxers  could 
raise  regiments  of  "  spirit  soldiers "  to  help  them 
against  the  foe.  The  panic  among  the  rustic  popula- 
tion spread  to  the  towns,  to  the  officials,  and  to  the 
Government  troops,  making  the  progress  of  the 
Heavenly  King  almost  a  triumphal  march  from 
district  to  district  and  from  town  to  town  until  he 
reached  Changsha,  provincial  capital  of  Hunan  and 
scene  of  the  anti-missionary  riot  in  the  April  of  the 
present  year.  Here  the  Taipings  received  their  first 
check  through  the  bravery  of  one  Tseng  Kwo-fan, 


50   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

one  of  those  excellent  soldiers  with  whom  the 
province  of  Hunan  seems  ever  ready  to  supply 
China,  and  at  the  same  time  an  able  scholar,  being 
one  of  the  "  Forest  of  Pencils,"  the  great  Hanlin 
Academy,  founded  in  the  Eighth  Century  A.D. 

Foiled  by  Tseng  Kwo-fan  in  their  attempt  on 
Changsha,  the  Taipings  passed  on  in  the  direction 
of  the  Yangtse  River,  along  which  they  worked 
toward  the  mouth,  capturing  every  place  of  import- 
ance on  the  way  until  at  last,  in  the  spring  of  1853, 
the  great  city  of  Nanking,  the  second  largest  in 
China,  fell  into  their  hands. 

This  was  perhaps  the  highest  point  of  success 
reached  by  the  Taipings.  As  they  marched  from 
province  to  province,  murdering  and  laying  waste 
wherever  they  went,  they  received  into  their  ranks 
the  outlaws  and  desperadoes  always  ready  in  China 
to  flock  to  the  standard  of  rebellion.  The  Heavenly 
King  lost  the  support  of  the  Triads  by  his  proclama- 
tion of  himself  as  Emperor  and  by  his  violent 
denunciation  of  "  idolatry,"  for  the  Triads  are 
essentially  Buddhists  of  the  corrupt  Chinese  type. 
But  victory  brought  him  so  many  soldiers  to  supply 
the  place  of  the  Triads  that  when  he  attacked 
Nanking  he  had  no  less  than  eighty  thousand  men 
under  him.  The  city  was  unable  to  withstand  assault. 
The  Taipings  broke  in  and  put  the  bulk  of  the 
population  to  the  sword,  including  all  the  twenty 
thousand  Manchus  resident  in  the  place. 

In  less  than  three  years  from  the  time  when  he 


THE  EMPRESS  ENTERS  POLITICAL  LIFE  51 

began  his  mission  the  Hakka  villager  was  seated 
as  Emperor  on  the  throne  of  the  Mings,  and  his 
forces  lay  like  a  wedge  inserted  between  Northern 
China  and  the  coast  provinces  about  Canton  in  the 
South.  It  looked  as  if  the  Ta  Tsing  dynasty, 
in  the  person  of  the  feeble  and  dissolute  Hienfung, 
was  doomed.  But  at  this  moment  the  Heavenly 
King,  as  though  intoxicated  by  his  position,  proceeded 
to  hide  himself  from  the  general  view  of  his  followers 
and  to  live  in  the  midst  of  his  harem  the  life  of  a 
cruel  tyrant  and  debauchee.  He  had  appointed  five 
subsidiary  wangs,  or  kings,  in  whose  hands  he  left  the 
conduct  of  public  affairs  ;  and  he  even  suffered 
encroachments  on  his  privilege  of  delivering  messages 
from  Heaven.  At  last,  however,  one  of  the  wangs, 
the  Eastern  King,  who  had  already  arrogated  to 
himself  the  title  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  went  so  far 
as  to  rebuke  the  Tien-wang  severely  for  his  violent 
treatment  of  his  womenfolk.  The  Heavenly  King 
accepted  the  rebuke,  but  not  long  afterwards  had  his 
rash  assistant  beheaded  on  a  false  charge  of  treason. 
The  example  which  he  set  his  adherents  of  licence 
and  brutality  was  one  which  they  needed  no  en- 
couragement to  follow  ;  and  a  broad  trail  of  outrage, 
ruin,  and  murder  marked  the  progress  of  the  Taipings 
through  China. 

The  Heavenly  King's  lapse  into  debauchery  soon 
brought  about  a  change  in  the  situation,  and,  had  it 
not  been  for  the  outbreak  of  the  Arrow  War, 
it  is  possible  that  the  Imperialists  might  have  crushed 


52    GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

the  rebellion  half  a  dozen  years  earlier  than  they 
actually  did.  It  is  true  that  the  Chinese  generals 
in  the  Yangtse  region  calmly  continued  their  opera- 
tions against  the  Taipings  while  the  Allies  were 
invading  the  province  of  Chihli.  But  without  the 
necessary  reinforcements  from  the  North  they  made 
no  permanent  headway.  On  the  contrary,  one  of  the 
Taiping  commanders,  the  Chung-wang  or  "  Faithful 
King,"  as  his  title  is  usually  translated,  displayed 
so  much  ability  in  the  field  that  only  the  presence  of 
a  body  of  British  and  French  marines,  landed  from 
the  warships  engaged  in  the  operations  against  the 
Central  Government  of  China,  saved  Shanghai  from 
falling  into  rebel  hands  ! 

The  death  of  the  Emperor  Hienfung  and  the 
accession  of  his  little  son  found  the  middle  provinces 
of  China  in  a  dreadful  condition.  The  Imperialists 
and  the  rebels  swept  backward  and  forward,  leaving 
beggary  and  starvation  behind  them.  The  nucleus 
of  the  Taiping  armies,  being  alien  in  blood  to  the 
inhabitants  of  the  Yangtse  Valley,  robbed  and 
murdered  wherever  they  went,  and  the  Government 
troops,  with  their  pay  always  in  arrears  and  their 
commissariat  usually  non-existent,  were  scarcely  less 
of  a  scourge  to  the  district  which  they  visited.  The 
wretched  peasantry  were  reduced  in  some  places  to 
cannibalism  as  they  wandered  among  the  ruins  of  their 
villages. 

The  establishment  of  the  new  Regency  was  power- 
less of  course  to  produce  an  immediate  improvement 


THE  EMPRESS  ENTERS  POLITICAL  LIFE  53 

in  the  condition  of  affairs  ;  and  gradually  there  came 
about  a  better  organization  of  the  Imperialist  forces 
and  an  introduction  of  method  into  the  warfare 
against  the  rebels.  The  more  harmonious  relations 
of  the  Government  with  the  Western  Powers  enabled 
China  to  make  systematic  use  of  foreign  aid  in  the 
struggle.  In  a  small  degree  this  course  was  adopted 
before  the  death  of  Hienfung,  for  as  early  as  1860 
there  was  formed  at  Shanghai,  through  the  subscrip- 
tions of  rich  Chinese  merchants  of  the  place,  the 
beginning  of  that  force  which  afterwards  made  itself 
so  famous  as  the  Ever  Victorious  Army.  But  it  was 
not  until  three  years  later  that  "Chinese"  Gordon 
took  command,  in  response  to  the  request  of  China 
for  the  loan  of  a  British  officer.  Partly  through  the 
military  talents  of  Gordon  (but  also,  it  must  not  be 
forgotten,  through  the  patriotic  exertions  of  General 
Tseng  Kwo-fan  and  of  Viceroy  Li  Hung-chang, 
who,  like  Tseng,  came  to  the  very  front  of  affairs 
at  this  period  in  their  country's  history),  the  second 
turning-point  in  the  great  rebellion  was  reached, 
and  the  end  then  came  even  sooner  than  could  have 
been  expected.  On  July  i9th,  1864,  Nanking 
capitulated.  The  Heavenly  King  had  already 
poisoned  himself  on  June  3Oth,  by  that  curious 
Chinese  method  of  "  swallowing  gold-leaf."  The 
Chung  -wangy  Faithful  King  to  the  end,  escaped 
with  his  leader's  sixteen-year-old  son  and  a  thousand 
followers,  only  to  be  captured  and  executed  before 
the  year  finished.  By  the  spring  of  1865  there  were 


54   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

no  Tai pings  left,  except  a  few  isolated  bands  of 
desperadoes  who  broke  across  the  frontiers  of  the 
provinces  bordering  on  the  disturbed  regions,  and 
lived  to  cause  the  Government  trouble  in  the  future. 

This  horrible  civil  war  came  to  an  end  none  too 
soon.  During  the  course  of  fourteen  years  no  less 
than  twenty  millions  of  Chinese  had  been  killed  or 
died  of  starvation,  and  nine  provinces  had  been 
utterly  devastated,  Honan,  Chekiang,  Kiangsi,  and 
Kiangsu  suffering  most.  The  way  of  the  Taip- 
ings  was  to  slaughter  and  loot,  not  to  establish  a 
proper  government  wherever  they  went,  in  spite  of 
the  Heavenly  King's  claim  that  he  was  founding  a 
new  dynasty.  The  language  of  the  Imperial  edict 
on  receipt  of  the  news  of  his  death  was  perfectly 
true :  "  Words  cannot  convey  any  idea  of  the  misery 
and  desolation  which  he  caused.  The  measure  of  his 
iniquity  was  full,  and  the  wrath  of  gods  and  men  was 
aroused  against  him."  It  is  remarkable  that  even 
now,  when  we  can  appreciate  to  the  full  the  immense 
evil  wrought  by  this  rebellion,  some  Western  writers 
can  be  found  regretting  the  foreign  aid  given  to 
the  Imperialists.  The  Taipings,  with  their  Hakka 
leaders,  were  barbarous  savages,  and  the  ludicrous 
parody  of  Christianity  which  the  Heavenly  King  in- 
vented calls  for  no  sympathy  in  the  West.  It  would 
have  been  a  dire  calamity  for  China  had  the  dynasty 
of  the  "  Great  Peace  "  prevailed.  Here  truly  was  an 
example  of  that  bad  government  which  Confucius 
declared  to  be  worse  than  a  tiger.  Far  better  the 


THE  EMPRESS  ENTERS  POLITICAL  LIFE   55 

Manchus  than  the  Tien-wang  and  his  like.  The 
chief  causes  for  regret  which  the  West  should  feel  are 
that  misguided  people  in  Europe  and  the  United 
States  should  have  upheld  the  justice  of  the  Taiping 
cause  and  welcomed  its  adherents  as  fellow  Christians  ; 
that  numbers  of  unscrupulous  European  and  Ameri- 
can adventurers  should  have  enrolled  themselves 
under  the  rebel  banner  and  helped  the  rising  to  con- 
tinue for  such  a  fearful  length  of  time1  ;  and  that  the 
general  effect  of  the  connection  of  Westerners  with 
the  rebellion  was  to  render  the  Chinese  more  sus- 
picious and  contemptuous  of  them  than  before. 

It  was  a  fortunate  commencement  for  the  Regency 
of  the  two  Empresses  and  Prince  Kung  that  in  three 
years  they  got  rid  of  the  incubus  which  had  preyed 
on  China  throughout  the  preceding  reign.  The 
Yunnan  revolt  still  remained  unquelled  ;  and  the 
situation  was  complicated  by  the  outbreak  in  1863 
of  another  Mohammedan  rising,  starting  in  Shensi, 
spreading  into  Kansu,  and  thence  involving  all  the 
Tungan  subjects  of  the  Empire  outside  the  Eighteen 
Provinces.  Happily  for  China,  the  Panthay  and 
Tungan  rebellions  (both  of  which  seem  to  have  been 
caused  chiefly  by  the  tyranny  of  local  Chinese  officials) 
remained  quite  distinct,  and  allowed  themselves  to  be 

1  It  was  an  Englishman  who  aided  the  Faithful  King  to  inflict 
on  the  "  Ever  Victorious  Army"  its  first  defeat ;  and  the  exploits  of 
an  American,  the  infamous  Burgevine,  deserter  from  the  Imperialists 
to  the  Taipings,  did  much  to  counteract  the  good  effects  of  Gordon's 
presence  at  the  head  of  that  force. 


56   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

crushed  in  the  usual  leisurely  but  thorough  way  of 
the  Imperialist  generals. 

So  the  Regency,  although  confronted  for  a  period 
by  three  simultaneous  revolts,  and  suffering  from  the 
legacy  of  humiliation  at  the  hands  of  the  foreigner 
left  to  them  by  Hienfung  and  his  advisers,  succeeded 
not  only  in  maintaining  the  integrity  of  the  Empire, 
but  also  in  preserving  on  the  throne  the  Ta  Tsing 
dynasty.  Opinions  may  be  divided  as  to  the  benefit 
to  China  of  the  latter  achievement,  but  there  can  be 
no  doubt  that  for  the  former  the  country  owes  a 
great  debt  of  gratitude  to  Prince  Kung  and  the  two 
women  who  lent  him  their  aid  and  the  weight  of 
their  names  as  mothers  of  the  Emperor  minor. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE   JOINT   REGENCY— RISE   OF    LI   HUNG- 
CHANG 

pRINCE  RUNG  and  the  Dowager  Empresses,  we 
have  said,  working  together  had  saved  the 
Empire,  in  a  position  of  enormous  difficulty  ;  and 
with  the  Empire  the  Imperial  family.  Hardly  had 
they  done  so,  when  there  came  about  a  sharp,  if  brief, 
quarrel  between  the  joint  Regents.  Nothing  is  known 
for  certain  of  the  facts  of  this  dispute,  save  what  is 
revealed  by  the  edict  published  on  April  2nd,  1865,  in 
the  name  of  the  two  Empresses.  Herein  Prince  Kung 
was  accused  of  overrating  his  own  importance  and 
showing  want  of  respect  for  their  Majesties,  and  it 
was  announced  that  he  was  dismissed  from  the  offices 
which  he  held.  This  was  all.  According  to  rumour, 
however,  Prince  Kung's  control  of  the  executive 
power  and  the  fact  that  he  alone  could  receive  the 
high  officials  personally  (the  Empresses  being  by 
custom  kept  behind  a  screen  in  the  reception-room), 
had  begun  to  turn  his  head  and  make  him  arrogant. 
The  edict  took  effect  immediately,  and  the  Prince 
stepped  down  from  his  lofty  position,  apparently 
without  an  attempt  to  resist.  But  his  partisans, 
including  those  in  the  Grand  Council  of  Empire 

57 


58    GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

over  which  he  had  presided,  lost  no  time  before 
making  a  vigorous  protest  in  the  time-honoured  way 
of  memorials  to  the  throne.  One  of  the  memorialists 
was  courageous  enough  to  give  warning  that  if  the 
Imperial  Household  were  to  be  the  first  to  begin 
misunderstandings  there  was  no  knowing  where 
matters  would  end.  In  later  days  an  official  venturing 
to  use  such  language  towards  Tze-hi  might  have  had 
reason  to  regret  his  rashness.  But  at  this  early  date 
Her  Majesty  did  not  feel  herself  secure.  Although 
she  had  the  support  of  her  fellow  Empress,  who, 
if  a  practical  nonentity,  had  at  least  tremendous 
prestige,  she  agreed  to  a  compromise.  Prince  Kung, 
having  expressed  his  sorrow  for  his  conduct  and 
begged  the  Empresses'  forgiveness,  was  reinstated, 
a  month  after  his  degradation,  to  all  his  posts  except 
the  presidency  of  the  Grand  Council.  The  better 
to  show  their  goodwill,  the  two  ladies  adopted  the 
Prince's  daughter  as  their  own,  giving  her  the  title 
and  privileges  of  Imperial  Princess,  which  she  retains 
to  this  day. 

It  is  uncertain  how  far  Prince  Kung's  position  was 
affected  by  this  affair.  Some  say  that  he  had  hence- 
forward little  or  none  of  his  former  authority  ;  others, 
that  he  was  as  important  as  ever.  It  seems  probable 
that  he  learnt  the  lesson  which  the  Empresses  desired 
to  teach  him,  that  they  were  the  real  Regents,  not 
he,  and  that  it  was  only  by  working  in  harmony  with 
them  that  he  could  continue  to  wield  the  power  which 
his  talents  had  won  for  him  in  the  first  place. 


THE   JOINT  REGENCY  59 

There  was,  too,  in  addition  to  the  offended  dignity 
of  his  sisters-in-law,  another  influence  which  tended 
to  diminish  the  supremacy  to  which  the  Manchu 
Prince  seemed  to  have  been  aspiring  in  the  govern- 
ment of  the  Empire.  This  was  the  rise  to  high 
positions  of  the  two  Chinese  whom  the  Taiping 
rebellion  had  especially  proved  to  be  men  of  ability, 
Tseng  Kwo-fan  and  Li  Hung-chang.  Tseng  Kwo- 
fan,  whose  family  prided  themselves  on  their  descent 
from  the  philosopher  Tseng,  sometimes  called  by 
Westerners  Cincius,  was  at  once  a  soldier  and  a 
scholar,  as  has  already  been  noted.  While  his 
intellectual  achievements  brought  him  distinction 
in  the  shape  of  membership  of  the  Hanlin  Academy, 
his  bravery  in  the  defence  of  Changsha  against  the 
Taipings  was  rewarded  with  such  rapid  promotion 
that  in  1864  he  was  the  general  in  command  of  the 
Imperialist  forces  which  captured  Nanking.  After  the 
suppression  of  the  rebellion  he  was  made  a  Hou  or 
"  Marquis,"  and  soon  became  second  in  power  to  none 
in  China  outside  the  Imperial  clan.  A  man  of  high 
character,  he  made  a  good  impression  on  unprejudiced 
European  observers,  although  the  fact  that  he  was 
Viceroy  of  Chihli  when  the  Tientsin  massacre  took 
place  (as  will  shortly  be  mentioned)  exposed  him  to 
a  certain  amount  of  obloquy.  He  was  certainly  not 
pro-foreign,  for  no  patriotic  Chinese  is  or  can  be  that ; 
and  Tseng  was  a  patriot  beyond  question.  But  he 
was  fair  -  minded  and  statesmanlike,  and  showed 
wonderfully  little  of  the  narrowness  which  so 


60    GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

often     accompanies     great     literary    attainments     in 
China. 

A  very  different  kind  of  man,  undeniably  patriotic 
but  at  the  same  time  intensely  self-seeking,  was  Li 
Hung-chang,  world-famous  as  no  other  countryman 
of  his  ever  was.  Li  first  came  to  the  front  in  a 
manner  singularly  like  Tseng  Kwo-fan.  Born  in 
1823,  he  was  about  thirty  when  the  Taipings  invaded 
his  native  province  of  Anhui.  Li  was  living  at  his 
father's  house  in  the  town  of  Hofei.  Like  Tseng 
he  put  himself  at  the  head  of  the  Government  forces 
(in  this  case  militia  raised  by  himself)  and  attacked 
the  enemy.  More  cautious  than  the  other,  he 
restricted  his  operations  against  the  rebels  to  guerilla 
fighting,  but  he  did  sufficiently  well  to  attract  the 
attention  of  the  authorities.  Tseng,  having  dis- 
tinguished himself  somewhat  earlier  in  date,  was 
already  in  a  position  to  be  of  use  to  his  imitator, 
and  a  friendship  sprang  up  between  the  two  men 
which  lasted  until  the  elder's  death.  Li's  rise  during 
the  rebellion  was  as  rapid  as  his  friend's,  and  it  was 
as  Viceroy  of  the  Kiangnan  provinces  (Kiangsi, 
Kiangsu,  and  Anhui)  that  "  Chinese  "  Gordon  found 
him  when  he  took  up  command  of  the  Ever  Victorious 
Army.  After  the  close  of  the  rebellion,  Li  was  not 
only  made  a  Pih  or  "  Earl,"  but  he  was  also  given 
the  high  reward  of  the  Yellow  Riding  Jacket.  Some 
people  may  recall  the  great  Li  wearing  this  brilliant 
golden-hued  coat,  with  its  peacock-blue  sleeves,  on 
certain  occasions  during  his  visit  to  this  country. 


THE   JOINT   REGENCY  61 

Li  Hung-chang  had  started  on  that  career  of  ser- 
vice to  his  country  and  its  rulers  in  which  he  was  to 
continue  until  the  end  of  his  days.  He  was  not  yet, 
however,  brought  in  direct  contact  with  her  whose 
appreciation  of  his  abilities  later  gave  him  so  many 
opportunities  of  devoting  them  to  the  cause  of  China. 
Apart  from  the  fact  that  Court  etiquette  still  pre- 
vented a  meeting  between  Empress  and  official,  Li, 
having  obtained  so  much  success  against  the  Taipings, 
was  called  upon  to  tackle  the  next  serious  outbreak, 
that  of  the  Nienfei  or  "  twisted-turban "  rebels  in 
Shantung  and  Honan  provinces,  and  it  was  not  until 
1870  that  he  came  into  touch  with  Peking,  sum- 
moned north  to  extricate  his  country  from  a  most 
threatening  position.  If  Tze-hi  had  been  an  Em- 
press and  Li  Hung-chang  a  great  subject  in  an  Euro- 
pean country,  we  should  perhaps  have  been  able  to 
tell  at  what  point  in  her  career  she  fixed  upon  him  as 
the  man  most  fitted  to  aid  her  in  her  ambitious  plan 
of  effectively  ruling  an  Empire  without  ousting  from 
the  throne  the  nominal  sovereign.  As  it  is,  we  only 
know  for  certain  that  she  had  Li  Hung-chang  as  an 
instrument  ready  to  hand  when  she  required  him. 
Information  as  to  the  steps  by  which  she  won  him  to 
her  side  is  totally  lacking.  During  her  son's  minority 
she  strengthened  her  position  in  many  respects  ;  as, 
for  instance,  when  she  induced  her  brother-in-law, 
Prince  Chun,  to  marry  one  of  her  younger  sisters,  so 
giving  her  family,  and  through  it  herself,  a  second 
bond  with  the  Imperial  clan.  But  Imperial  relation- 


62   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

ships  might  become  a  source  of  danger  as  well  as  of 
power,  and  it  was  necessary  for  her  to  build  up  a 
party  prepared  to  support  any  claims  which  she  might 
one  day  put  forward.  When  the  critical  moment 
arrives,  we  shall  find  that  Tze-hi  had  done  this. 
And  among  her  adherents  there  was  no  one  better 
qualified  to  bring  her  success  than  Li  Hung-chang. 

Apart  from  what  Tze-hi  schemed  in  her  own 
interests,  it  may  certainly  be  said  that  the  Regency 
was  instrumental  in  bringing  to  the  front  men  of 
much  better  character  and  more  enlightenment  than 
those  who  had  guided  the  councils  of  the  Emperor 
Hienfung.  And  the  general  policy  of  China  appeared 
to  be  assuming  a  more  liberal  character,  although  the 
foreign  merchants  resident  in  the  coast-ports,  it  must 
be  added,  refused  to  admit  that  there  was  any  genuine 
improvement.  The  merchants  had  this  much  evi- 
dence in  support  of  their  argument,  that  the  local 
Chinese  officials  remained  as  corrupt,  as  anti-foreign, 
and  as  obstructive  to  trade  from  abroad  as  ever  they 
had  been.  Still,  it  is  impossible  to  deny  that  Peking 
showed  some  unmistakable  signs  of  awakening.  The 
mere  fact  of  the  despatch  of  the  "Burlingame  Mis- 
sion "  to  America  and  Europe  showed  a  remarkable 
departure  in  policy. 

Mr.  Anson  Burlingame  had  been  United  States 
Minister  at  Peking.  Retiring  from  his  post  toward 
the  end  of  1867,  he  received  from  the  Government 
of  China  an  appointment  as  joint  Special  Commis- 
sioner with  two  native  colleagues,  attended  by  a 


THE   JOINT   REGENCY  63 

mixed  European  and  Chinese  staff,  to  visit  the  West 
and  plead  for  China's  right,  as  a  progressive  nation, 
to  manage  her  own  affairs.  The  mission  was  not  so 
fruitful  as  Burlingame  himself  hoped.  He  suc- 
ceeded, indeed,  in  negotiating  a  treaty  between  China 
and  his  own  country,  one  of  the  clauses  of  which 
recognized  "the  inherent  and  inalienable  right  of 
man  to  change  his  home  and  allegiance,  and  also  the 
mutual  advantage  of  free  migration  and  emigration  " 
of  the  citizens  and  subjects  of  the  two  countries  "  for 
the  purposes  of  curiosity  or  trade  or  as  permanent 
residents."  In  Europe  he  did  little  before  death  cut 
short  his  task  at  St.  Petersburg  in  the  spring  of  1870. 
It  was  noted  with  bitter  satisfaction  by  those  who 
had  denounced  the  Burlingame  Mission  that  the 
Peking  Government  refrained  from  rewarding  Bur- 
lingame's  Chinese  colleagues  with  high  office  on  their 
return  from  abroad,  and  that,  so  far  from  relations 
between  natives  and  foreigners  improving,  a  wave  of 
anti-foreign  feeling  suddenly  swept  over  various  parts 
of  China,  including  districts  which  ought  to  have 
been  well  under  the  control  of  the  central  authorities. 
It  was,  of  course,  very  human  of  these  critics  to 
seize  upon  the  waverings  and  the  inconsistencies  of 
Peking  to  drive  home  their  arguments  against  any 
real  desire  for  progress  in  China.  Yet,  if  they  had 
waited,  they  would  have  found  others  beside  the 
Chinese  inconsistent ;  they  would  have  seen  the 
United  States  Government,  after  affirming  "  the  in- 
herent and  inalienable  right  of  man,"  etc.,  passing 


64   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

exclusion  laws  against  the  Chinese  which  have  become 
stricter  and  stricter  until  the  present  day.  They 
would  have  witnessed  also  waves  of  anti-Chinese 
feeling,  both  in  the  United  States  and  in  Australia, 
resulting  in  outrages  for  which  China  has  received  no 
compensation  whatever. 

Unhappily,  it  has  never  been  the  custom  of  the 
Western  Powers  to  treat  the  nations  of  the  East  with 
justice  unless  obliged  to  do  so,  and  in  this  respect 
China  has  been  a  great  sufferer.  Peking  has  always 
had  to  answer  for  the  wrongs  done  to  foreigners,1 
while  no  appeal  to  a  Western  Government  regarding 
wrongs  inflicted  on  Chinese  immigrants  has  yet  been 
allowed. 

In  the  case  of  the  Tientsin  massacre  of  1870, 
China,  it  must  be  admitted,  escaped  very  lightly, 
when  we  compare  other  outrages  against  Europeans 
and  the  punishments  exacted  for  them.  But  the 
reason  for  this  was  that  the  hand  of  the  chastiser  was 
stayed  by  a  catastrophe  at  home. 

For  two  years  previous  to  the  Tientsin  massacre 
troubles  had  occurred  in  various  parts  of  the  Empire 
— in  Kwangtung,  Fuhkien,  Kiangsu,  Szechuan,  and 
Formosa — between  natives  and  foreigners,  chiefly 
missionaries.  The  surreptitious  clause  in  the  French 
version  of  the  Treaty  of  Tientsin  had  opened  the 
way  for  a  vast  increase  in  missionary  propaganda 
(about  which  more  will  be  said  in  the  next  chapter)  ; 

1  Pecuniarily,  no  doubt,  Peking  has  always  been  able  to  recoup 
itself  at  the  expense  of  the  province  in  which  the  trouble  occurred. 


THE  JOINT   REGENCY  65 

and  Great  Britain  in  a  discussion  on  the  revision  of 
her  own  Treaty  insisted  on  the  extension  of  the  right 
of  residence  in  the  interior  of  China  to  merchants  as 
well  as  missionaries.  Although  the  Tsungli  Yamen, 
including  its  most  enlightened  members, fought  bitterly 
against  this  extension,  which  involved  the  presence 
in  the  inland  provinces  of  still  more  foreigners 
exempt  from  Chinese  jurisdiction,  resistance  was  in 
vain.  China,  having  been  deceived  by  French  dip- 
lomacy into  permitting  the  thin  end  to  be  inserted, 
now  saw  the  wedge  being  driven  further  home. 
Those  who  search  for  the  hand  of  Peking  in  almost 
every  provincial  outbreak  against  foreigners  claim 
that  the  disturbances  immediately  preceding  and 
during  1870  were  promoted,  directly  or  indirectly, 
by  the  central  authorities,  rendered  desperate  by  the 
position  in  which  they  found  themselves  placed. 
And  this  was  the  view  held  also  by  coast-port 
residents  at  the  time.  Naturally  it  is  impossible  to 
bring  home  the  guilt,  and  in  the  heated  condition  of 
opinion  accusations  were  hurled  too  broadcast  to  be 
worthy  of  acceptance.  In  the  Tientsin  affair  suspicion 
fell  not  only  on  high  officials  like  Tseng  Kwo-fan, 
but  still  more  on  various  members  of  the  Imperial 
family,  notably  Prince  Chun.  Twenty  years  later 
the  name  of  the  Empress  Dowager  Tze-hi  would 
have  been  the  first  to  occur  to  the  minds  of 
foreigners.  But  in  1870  her  personality  was  almost 
unknown  outside  Peking,  and  as  far  as  she  was 
known  she  was  credited  with  adherence  to  the  party 


66  GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

of  Prince  Kung,  Wensiang,  and  other  Liberals,  to 
whom  the  Tientsin  massacre  came  as  a  great  blow, 
thwarting  their  plans  for  the  guidance  of  the  ship  of 
State  and  all  but  wrecking  it,  as  its  previous  unskilled 
pilots  had  wrecked  it  in  the  reign  of  Hienfung.  If 
we  may  judge  the  Empress,  however,  by  her  attitude 
in  later  years,  she  should  now  have  been  engaged  in 
the  occupation  known  as  "  sitting  on  the  fence."  And 
in  this  she  would  have  been  well  justified  ;  for  the 
outlook  was  very  obscure. 

At  the  time  when  the  Tientsin  massacre  took  place 
the  Viceroy  of  Chihli  was  Tseng  Kwo-fan.  He  had 
only  recently  come  to  the  metropolitan  province  from 
the  Kiangnan,  where  unfortunately  he  had  experienced 
considerable  trouble  with  the  British  Consul  from 
Shanghai  over  the  Yangchow  anti-missionary  out- 
break. Tseng  had  only  given  way  to  Mr.  Med- 
hurst's  demands  for  reparation,  in  their  full  extent, 
after  threats  of  violent  action.  Now  at  Tientsin 
Tseng  was  called  upon  to  face  a  far  more  serious 
crisis  than  at  Yangchow,  where  the  worst  the  mob 
had  done  was  to  wreck  the  China  Inland  Mission 
buildings  and  drive  the  missionaries  out  of  the  town. 
In  the  first  half  of  the  year  1870  Tientsin  and  its 
neighbourhood  were  in  a  state  of  smouldering  com- 
bustion, which  boded  ill  for  foreigners  should  any- 
thing happen  to  fan  the  smallest  flame  into  existence. 

Perhaps  all  the  causes  of  the  bitter  anti-foreign 
sentiment  at  Tientsin  in  1870  (which,  it  may  be 
noted,  continues  strong  even  to  the  present  day)  are 


THE  JOINT  REGENCY  67 

not  known.  Nearly  ten  years  earlier  the  French  had 
given  great  offence  by  converting  a  former  temple 
into  their  consulate.  French  missionary  activity,  too, 
at  Tientsin  was  very  marked,  the  Sisters  of  Charity 
in  particular  having  started  an  orphanage  and  found- 
ling hospital  for  Chinese  children.  Unhappily  they 
marred  their  good  work  by  the  indiscreet  offer  of  a 
small  reward  in  return  for  every  child  placed  in  their 
charge.  The  Chinese  claimed  that  this  led  to  the 
kidnapping  of  children  to  sell  to  the  Sisters  ;  and  this 
charge  seems  to  have  been  not  altogether  without 
foundation,  according  to  the  belief  even  of  foreign 
residents.  But  kidnapping  of  children  has  always 
been  laid  to  the  charge  of  Christian  missions  in 
China.  The  zeal  of  the  Tientsin  Sisters  to  baptize 
children  at  the  point  of  death  led  to  still  worse  mis- 
understandings. The  more  ignorant  among  the 
Chinese,  in  no  matter  what  part  of  the  Empire,  in- 
capable of  comprehending  the  results  of  Western 
science,  have  always  been  ready  to  accept  the  idea  that 
it  is  by  magic  that  foreigners  achieve  their  wonders. 
And,  in  the  crude  state  of  China's  pharmacopeia  to 
this  very  day,  the  mob  has  never  found  any  difficulty 
in  swallowing  the  story  that  the  eyes,  etc.,  of  dead 
Chinese  are  important  ingredients  in  compound- 
ing miracle-working  drugs.  In  this  superstition 
the  literary  classes,  resentful  of  the  blows  which 
Westerners  were  endeavouring  to  strike  at  them 
and  their  intensely  cherished  learning,  have  always 
been  glad  to  encourage  the  vulgar  herd,  regardless 


68    GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

of  the  danger  to   their  country  of  exciting  trouble 
against  the  foreigner. 

It  seems  to  have  been,  then,  the  usual  admixture 
of  selfishness  of  the  native  literati,  credulity  of  the 
native  populace,  and  unwisdom  of  foreign  propa- 
gandists which  led  to  the  catastrophe  at  Tientsin  in 
1870.  Toward  the  end  of  May  an  epidemic  carried 
off  many  of  the  Chinese  children  at  the  orphanage 
hospital  of  the  Sisters.  There  was  in  the  town  a 
secret  society  called  the  "Turbid  Stars,"  which  in- 
cluded a  great  number  of  the  worst  characters  of  the 
place,  who  eagerly  seized  on  an  excuse  for  disturb- 
ance. The  local  authorities,  according  to  their 
European  accusers,  knew  of  the  brewing  storm, 
but  took  no  steps  to  prevent  the  outbreak.  When 
crowds  began  to  assemble  and  talk  of  an  attack  on  the 
mission-buildings,  all  they  did  was  to  suggest  that  a 
committee  should  be  appointed  to  visit  the  Orphanage 
and  report.  The  Sisters,  alarmed  at  the  situation, 
consented.  At  this  point  the  French  Consul  at 
Tientsin,  M.  Fontanier,  a  rash  and  hot-tempered 
man,  made  an  unfortunate  intervention.  Although 
he  should  have  known,  equally  as  well  as  the  Chinese 
authorities,  the  threatening  state  of  Tientsin,  his 
first  step  was  to  come  to  the  Orphanage  and  drive 
out  without  ceremony  the  committee  of  inspection. 
Then  when  the  District  Magistrate  called  upon  him 
at  the  Consulate  and  warned  him  that  it  was  highly 
dangerous  to  forbid  the  inspection,  Fontanier  declined 
to  deal  with  an  official  of  so  low  a  rank.  And  so  the 


THE  JOINT  REGENCY  69 

chance  of  amicable  negotiation,  which  might  have  pre- 
vented disaster,  passed  away. 

On  June  2ist,  two  days  after  the  District  Magis- 
trate's futile  call  at  the  French  Consulate,  the  mob 
gathered  together  again  in  full  force  and  hurried  to 
the  Sisters'  establishment  and  the  Roman  Catholic 
Cathedral,  threatening  fire  and  slaughter.  As  we 
learn  from  a  letter  which  the  British  Minister,  Sir 
Thomas  Wade,  afterwards  wrote  to  Prince  Kung,  it 
was  led  by  "  the  fire-brigades  and  the  banded  villains 
known  as  the  Huming  Tzu  "  (hooligans),  and  under 
the  chief  direction  of  an  ex-rebel  officer  now,  ac- 
cording to  the  common  Chinese  custom,  holding  the 
brevet  of  major-general  in  the  regular  army.  In  its 
ranks,  too,  were  numbers  of  soldiers  and  of  under- 
lings from  the  various  magistracies. 

While  the  rioters  marched  on  their  prey,  the 
unhappy  Fontanier,  taking  with  him  a  clerk,  presented 
himself  at  the  office  of  the  Superintendent  of  Customs, 
a  Manchu  named  Chunghow.  This  Chunghow, 
though  a  poor  weak  creature  and  destined  to  make 
himself  infamous  a  few  years  hence  by  a  betrayal 
of  his  country  to  Russia,  on  the  present  occasion 
appears  to  have  been  in  no  way  to  blame  for  what 
occurred.  It  was  not  within  his  province  to  keep 
order  in  Tientsin.  Fontanier  was  off  his  head  with 
excitement,  and,  disregarding  Chunghow's  advice,  went 
out  into  the  street,  revolver  in  hand.  He  was  never 
seen  again,  and  his  death  gave  the  mob  its  signal  for 
the  attack  on  the  Orphanage  and  Cathedral.  The 


70    GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

Sisters  were  barbarously  murdered,  together  with 
a  number  of  other  foreigners,  twenty  in  all,  and 
probably  many  more  native  converts. 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  all  the  foreigners  killed 
were  French  subjects,  with  the  exception  of  three 
Russians,  who  may  have  been  mistaken  for  French  ; 
and  that  the  rioters  did  not  go  on  to  attack  the 
Protestant  missions.  It  is  usually  said  that  the 
Chinese  mob  cannot  discriminate  between  one  foreign 
nation  and  another.  But  at  Tientsin  in  1870  this 
does  not  seem  to  have  been  true,  which  points  to  the 
grievance  being  anti-French  and  anti-Roman  rather 
than  generally  anti-foreign  and  anti-missionary  ;  and 
also,  it  must  be  added,  points  to  some  intelligent 
direction  of  the  brute  force  of  the  mob. 

As  it  turned  out,  the  Chinese  Government  was 
very  lucky  in  that  France  was  the  sufferer  on  this 
awful  day,  for  some  three  weeks  later  came  the  fatal 
council  of  Saint-Cloud  on  July  i4th,  when  war  against 
Prussia  was  declared.  But  for  this,  a  Franco-Chinese 
war  might  have  taken  place,  with  the  usual  penalty 
in  China  for  the  blood  of  the  martyrs,  the  extension 
of  foreign  dominion. 

Nevertheless,  the  prospect  looked  black  for  Peking 
at  first,  the  representatives  of  the  other  Powers  loyally 
supporting  France  in  her  demand  for  instant  severe 
measures.  Prince  Kung  and  the  Tsungli  Yamen 
employed,  to  the  utmost  possible  extent,  the  favourite 
Chinese  diplomatic  weapon  of  procrastination.  They 
defended  the  conduct  of  Viceroy  Tseng  and  other 


THE  JOINT  REGENCY  71 

high  officials,  whom  they  claimed  to  be  doing  their 
duty  in  restoring  order  and  seeking  for  the  guilty 
parties.  The  foreign  Ministers  retorted  that  only 
a  few  of  the  lowest  criminal  class  had  been  arrested, 
while  songs  were  in  circulation  in  praise  of  the 
massacre,  as  well  as  pictures  in  which  the  officials 
were  represented  as  spectators  friendly  to  the  mob. 
Sir  Thomas  Wade,  in  his  letter  to  Prince  Kung,  told 
him  plainly  that  there  were  leading  men  in  China 
who,  if  not  direct  instigators  of  the  atrocities,  at  least 
approved  of  them  and  were  shielding  the  authors, 
while  urging  that  all  foreigners  should  be  treated 
in  the  same  way  as  the  victims  of  June  2ist. 

Refusing  to  believe  in  the  sincerity  of  China's 
endeavour  to  find  the  real  criminals,  the  Powers 
assembled  a  naval  force  off  Tientsin,  while  France 
through  the  charge  d'affaires  then  representing  her 
at  Peking,  put  forward  a  demand  for  the  execution 
of  the  City  Prefect  and  District  Magistrate.  The 
Tsungli  Yamen,  strengthened  by  the  knowledge  of 
the  outbreak  of  hostilities  between  France  and 
Prussia,  very  properly  declined  to  execute  these 
officials  before  they  had  been  duly  tried.  They 
promised,  however,  to  make  a  strict  investigation, 
and  appointed  a  special  commission  of  enquiry,  of 
which  the  two  principal  members  were  Li  Hung- 
chang  and  Tseng  Kwo-fan.  At  the  same  time,  in 
deference  to  the  foreign  outcry  against  Tseng  (who 
was  certainly  unfortunate  in  the  occurrence  of  two 
outrages  against  missionaries  in  two  successive  vice- 


72    GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

royalties),  an  Imperial  edict  removed  him  from  Chihli 
to  the  Kiangnan  provinces,  where  the  Viceroy  had 
just  been  assassinated.  In  place  of  Tseng,  Li  Hung- 
chang  was  brought  from  the  Hukwang  and  appointed 
to  Chihli. 

Li's  presence  on  a  commission,  as  Westerners  now 
began  to  learn,  meant  that  the  work  in  hand  would  be 
carried  to  a  conclusion  with  a  speed  that  was  almost 
un-Chinese.  The  two  officials  who  were  adjudged 
responsible  for  allowing  the  mob  to  collect  were 
sentenced  to  exile  in  Manchuria.  Twenty  men  were 
condemned  to  death  as  having  taken  actual  part  in  the 
murders,  and  on  October  i8th,  four  months  after  the 
massacre,  sixteen  of  them  were  led  to  the  execution- 
ground  and  beheaded  in  the  presence  of  the  consuls 
and  other  foreign  residents  and  a  large  crowd  of 
Chinese,  who  took  no  pains  to  conceal  the  fact  that 
they  looked  on  the  captives  as  heroes  and  martyrs. 

In  addition  to  these  punishments  the  Chinese 
Government  agreed  to  pay  an  indemnity  of  four 
hundred  thousand  Taels  and  to  send  Chunghow  on 
a  mission  of  apology  to  France.  Thus,  at  a  price 
which  was  light  indeed  compared  with  what  China 
has  since  had  to  pay  for  less  serious  outrages,  the 
crime  of  Tientsin  was  expiated.  Had  some  foreign 
views  prevailed  the  penalty  would  have  been  far 
heavier.  A  member  of  one  of  the  Protestant 
missions  actually  proposed  that  troops  should  be 
landed  to  raze  to  the  ground  half  of  the  city,  and 
that  on  the  open  space  a  memorial  should  be  erected 


THE   JOINT   REGENCY  73 

to  the  victims  of  June  21st.1  Happily  for  the  credit 
of  Western  civilization  the  lay  arm  was  not  so  cruel 
as  the  clerical  mind,  and  on  this  occasion  the  innocent 
were  not  made  to  suffer  with  or  instead  of  the 
guilty — although  it  is  true  that  Tientsin  residents 
freely  suggested  that  the  sixteen  men  beheaded  in 
October  were  bought  substitutes  for  the  real 
criminals. 

In  conducting  the  commission  of  enquiry  to  a 
satisfactory  close,  Li  Hung-chang  deserved  well  of 
his  country,  and  the  Regents  recognized  this  by 
bestowing  on  him  the  two-eyed  peacock's  feather  and 
the  rank  of  Imperial  Tutor  of  the  Second  Class,  as 
well  as  by  appointing  him  to  the  Grand  Secretariat. 
With  the  waning  of  Tseng  Kwo-fan's  influence 
through  his  misfortunes  as  Viceroy,  which  caused 
him  twice  in  three  years  to  be  concerned  in  the  pay- 
ing of  heavy  indemnities  to  foreigners,  Li  was  now 
practically  the  first  man  in  China  outside  the  Imperial 
family.  On  Tseng's  death  in  1872  he  had  no  rival 
of  his  own  race. 

The  incident  of  the  Tientsin   massacre   has  been 

1  It  is  painful  to  see  also  a  missionary  of  the  standing  of  Dr. 
W.  A.  P.  Martin  writing  :  "If  in  1870  the  French  charge^  declining 
the  offer  of  money  and  heads,  had  waited  until  he  could  have  a  fleet 
of  gunboats  in  the  Peiho,  if  then  the  whole  suburb  where  the  riot 
occurred  had  been  laid  in  ashes,  the  [Chinese]  Government  would 
have  taken  care  that  there  should  not  be  a  second  riot.  Being  let 
off  cheap,  the  anti-foreign  mandarins  felt  that  they  could  afford  to 
continue  the  process  of  fanning  the  flames  of  patriotism  "  (A  Cycle  of 
Cathay,  p.  445).  Could  a  better  exposition  be  asked  for  of  the 
"  missionary  and  gunboat "  policy  ? 


74   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

dealt  with  at  some  length,  for  the  reason  that  it 
was  the  first  serious  international  complication  since 
Tze-hi  took  a  share  in  the  government  of  her 
country,  and  must  have  given  her  her  first  insight 
into  the  dangers  threatening  China  now  that  she  had 
been  forced  by  treaty  to  take  her  place  in  the  so- 
called  sisterhood  of  nations.  Unhappily  it  was 
destined  that  more  than  thirty  years  should  pass 
before  the  Empress  Dowager  gave  unmistakable  proof 
that  she  had  learnt  the  lesson  which  the  Tientsin 
affair  should  have  conveyed.  Curiously,  it  was  Li 
Hung-chang's  last  performance  in  life,  thirty-one 
years  later,  to  extricate  his  Imperial  mistress  from  the 
situation  in  which  she  had  involved  herself  and  her 
country  by  her  inability  to  understand  this  lesson. 


CHAPTER    VI 

THE  MISSIONARY  QUESTION  IN  TZE-HI'S 
LIFETIME 

one  writing  about  the  Empress  Dowager  has 
ever  suggested  that  she  showed  at  any  time 
in  her  life  an  inclination  toward  Christianity.  She 
once  accepted,  on  her  sixtieth  birthday,  a  present 
of  a  New  Testament  from  the  native  Christian 
women  of  China  ;  but  we  never  hear  that  she  read 
it.  Her  most  friendly  act  toward  a  teacher  of  the 
Western  religion  which  is  known  to  history  was 
when,  in  the  February  after  her  restoration  to  Peking 
in  1902,  she  received  Monseigneur  Favier  in  audience 
and,  after  expressing  her  regret  for  the  Boxer  attacks 
on  his  cathedral,  affirmed  that  she  wished  to  look 
upon  Christian  converts  and  other  Chinese  alike  as 
her  subjects. 

Yet  it  is  not,  perhaps,  too  much  to  say  that  but  for 
the  presence  of  an  ever-increasing  number  of  Chris- 
tian missionaries  in  China  during  her  rule,  Her 
Imperial  Majesty  Tze-hi  might  have  remained  a  mere 
name  to  the  Western  world.  Certainly  the  West 
would  not  otherwise  have  come  to  look  upon  her  as 
the  great  influence,  for  good  or  for  evil,  that  she 
is  admitted  to  have  been.  The  European  penetration 

75 


;6   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

of  China  has  almost  invariably  proceeded  on  the  same 
lines.  The  missionary  is  the  pioneer,  the  trader  and 
the  gunboat  follow  him,  and  the  last  step  is  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  "  settlement "  or  "  concession,"  or  in 
some  cases  the  outright  annexation  of  a  port  and  its 
"  hinterland."  To  the  solution  of  the  problem  how 
to  deal  with  aggression  conducted  in  this  manner, 
the  subtlest  minds  of  the  Celestial  Empire  were 
compelled  to  devote  their  attention.  The  Manchu 
Empress  Dowager,  therefore,  and  her  greatest 
Chinese  henchman,  Li  Hung-chang,  giving  their 
consideration  to  the  matter,  learnt  by  experience  that 
honesty  was  impossible,  and  that  the  only  policy  was 
what  Li  himself  called  "the  policy  of  the  weak"1 — 
to  yield  when  forced  to,  and  in  the  meanwhile  to 
postpone  the  evil  day  by  playing  upon  the  mutual 
jealousies  of  the  ever  insatiable  Barbarians,  who 
looked  on  China  as  their  prey,  whether  for  religious, 
commercial,  or  political  purposes.  So  now  at  this 
point  in  the  Empress's  story,  when  we  are  about 
to  see  China  make  a  sincere  attempt  to  grapple  with 
the  missionary  difficulty,  we  may  pause  to  look  at  the 
prominent  aspects  of  the  question  which,  above  all 
others,  has  brought  China  into  conflict  with  the 
world. 

Volumes  might  be  written  merely  to  sum  up  the 

1  Li  was  probably  thinking  of  the  saying  of  a  legendary  prince  in 
The  History  of  Great  Light:  "Force  can  only  be  successful  in  com- 
bating what  is  weaker  than  itself  .  .  .  but  weakness  can  overcome 
what  is  far  stronger  than  itself." 


THE   MISSIONARY   QUESTION         77 

opinions  of  those  who  have  devoted  attention  to 
the  subject  of  Christian  missions  in  China — intelli- 
gent Chinese,  foreigners  both  intelligent  and  foolish, 
officials,  commercial  men,  journalists,  globe-trotters, 
and  a  whole  army  of  missionaries  themselves, 
Anglicans,  Roman  Catholics,  and  Protestants  of 
innumerable  sects.  Nor  would  the  task  of  compiling 
those  volumes  be  altogether  without  profit  in  the 
study  of  the  human  mind.  As,  however,  the  present 
book  has  no  such  ambitious  aim  in  view,  we  shall 
content  ourselves  with  such  few  incidental  references 
to  the  writings  of  others  as  may  seem  necessary 
to  the  discussion  of  the  subject. 

All  fair-minded  Western  observers  have  admitted 
that  the  Chinese  are,  as  a  whole,  one  of  the  most 
tolerant  nations  in  the  world  in  religious  matters  ; 
the  upper  classes  through  being  so  imbued  with 
Confucian  indifference,  the  lower  because  they  are 
so  superstitious  that  the  doors  of  their  pantheon 
are  always  open  to  receive  any  god  who  will  not  make 
war  on  his  neighbours.  Three  creeds  have  lived 
peaceably  side  by  side  for  the  greater  part  of  twenty 
centuries  of  Chinese  history,  and  a  fourth  has  been 
allowed  to  come  in  without  opposition.  If  then  the 
Confucianist  does  not  persecute  the  Buddhist,  the 
Buddhist  the  Taoist,  or  the  Taoist  the  Confucianist, 
and  if  a  Chinese  can  practically  own  allegiance  of  a 
sort  to  Confucius,  the  Buddha,  and  Lao-tze  at  the 
same  time,  while  tolerating  the  practice  of  Mohamme- 
danism in  certain  provinces  of  the  Empire,  how  is  it 


78    GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

that  the  three  creeds  may  be  found  banded  together 
in  enmity  to  Christianity  ?  Clearly  because  Chris- 
tianity, as  introduced  to  China,  had  neither  the  rather 
contemptuous  indifference  of  Confucianism  nor  the 
accommodating  ease  of  Taoism  and  East  Asiatic 
Buddhism.  It  was  not  prepared  to  hold  out  a  hand 
of  friendship  to  its  rivals,  nor  even  to  acknowledge 
them  with  the  civil  bow  of  mere  acquaintance. 
Moreover,  where  its  tenets  came  in  conflict  with  the 
customs  of  the  country,  it  did  not  allow  its  adherents 
to  conform  to  the  customs  ;  though,  like  old  national 
customs  all  over  the  world,  they  had  more  than  the 
force  of  laws.  The  result  of  this  was,  as  the 
educated  men  of  China  and  Western  critics  of 
the  missionaries  have  alike  insisted,  the  establishment 
of  an  imperium  in  imperio.1  Homage  to  one's 
ancestors,  which  is  filial  piety  carried  to  an  extreme, 
has  been  called  the  foundation-stone  of  Chinese 
belief.  It  is  a  religion  transcending  all  the  three 
main  creeds  of  the  nation,  and  has  profoundly 
influenced  them  all.  It  has  not  been  rejected  by  the 
Mohammedans  of  China.  But  since  the  day  when 
the  suggestion  of  the  Jesuits  at  Peking  in  the  seven- 
teenth century  to  tolerate  this  national  custom  among 
their  converts  was  declined  by  Rome,  missionaries, 
whether  Roman  Catholic  or  Protestant,  have  denounced 

1  The  Memorandum  mentioned  below  says,  precisely,  that  the 
missionaries  are  founding  "an  indefinite  number  of  states  within  the 
State." 


THE   MISSIONARY   QUESTION          79 

"  ancestor- worship  "  and  refused  to  allow  their  flock 
to  conform  to  the  practice  of  their  non-Christian 
neighbours.  With  this  refusal  has  gone  the  with- 
drawal of  the  converts  from  the  contributions  made 
in  every  town  and  village  for  the  upkeep  of  such 
foolish  but  quaint  ceremonies  as  the  driving  of  the 
demons  of  plague,  cholera,  etc.,  outside  the  gates 
and  their  massacre  by  armed  troops  in  the  open  ; 
the  giving  of  theatrical  shows  to  placate  the  wrath 
of  Buddhist  or  Taoist  divinities  ;  and  the  marching 
out  in  picturesque  procession  in  honour  of  this  god 
or  that.  The  abstention  of  the  native  Christians 
not  only  insulted  the  gods  and  their  worshippers, 
but  also  threw  an  additional  expense  on  the  latter, 
as  there  were  less  to  contribute  to  the  common 
fund. 

Cases  of  actual  disrespect  shown  by  missionaries 
themselves  to  sacred  images  or  religious  processions 
have  fortunately  been  few,  though  there  have  been 
such  cases,  even  as  late  as  the  beginning  of  the  present 
century.  With  regard  to  slighting  references  by 
Christian  teachers  to  the  philosophers  Confucius  and 
Mencius,  Dr.  A.  H.  Smith,  fairest  of  all  missionary 
writers  in  China,  considers  that  they  have  been  rare. 
But  he  is  probably  thinking  of  the  better-educated 
teachers,  and  there  are,  alas  !  very  many  who  cannot 
be  so  described,  both  European  and  American. 
Since  it  is  seldom  made  part  of  the  preliminary  train- 
ing of  missionaries  to  China  that  they  should  learn 
how  to  approach  and  (still  more  important)  how  not 


8o   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

to  approach  their  intended  converts,  it  is  inevitable 
that  causes  of  offence  should  arise.1 

It  can  be  seen,  therefore,  that  the  Christian  teacher 
presents  himself,  to  the  Chinese  mind,  as  an  attacking 
force  on  his  religious  side.  There  is  also  the  political 
side.  It  is  generally  claimed  on  behalf  of  the  Protes- 
tant missionaries  that  they  have  kept  their  hands 
clean  from  political  intrigue  ;  and  they  have  them- 
selves joined  with  other  critics  in  denouncing  the 
intriguing  of  the  Roman  Catholic  priests.  The  un- 
scrupulousness  of  the  French  Governments  in  the 
past  in  using  the  priest  as  a  pawn  in  the  game  against 
the  integrity  of  China  has  doubtless  brought  a  great 
deal  of  undeserved  abuse  upon  the  Roman  Catholic 
propagandists.  Still  it  cannot  be  denied  that  the 
latter  have  not  unfrequently  combined,  in  a  manner 
discreditable  to  their  calling,  with  the  diplomatists  of 
the  country  which  until  recently  posed  as  the  guardian 
of  the  Church  of  Rome.  China,  unskilled  in  dis- 
criminating between  the  sects,  has  visited  the  sins  of 
some  mischievously  political  Roman  Catholic  priests 
upon  the  Christian  evangelists  as  a  body.  And  when 

1  For  instance,  the  newly  arrived  missionary  will  probably  never 
have  heard  of  Feng-sAui,  that  mysterious  science  which  regulates  the 
height  and  positions  of  buildings,  the  directions  of  roads,  and  in- 
numerable other  things  in  China,  and  will  be  unable  to  understand 
why  the  Roman  Catholics  at  Canton  gave  such  offence  by  the 
erection  of  their  great  cathedral,  overtopping  every  other  building  in 
the  city,  and  therefore  threatening  terrible  evils  from  the  outraged 
spirits  of  the  air.  Yet  without  attention  to  Feng-shui  it  is  hardly 
possible  to  put  a  window  in  a  Chinese  house,  much  less  build  the 
house  itself. 


THE   MISSIONARY   QUESTION          81 

we  come  to  the  accusation  that  the  teachers  interfere 
in  the  legal  affairs  of  their  flock  and  put  unfair 
pressure  on  the  magistrates,  we  cannot  exonerate  one 
section  rather  than  another.  It  is  but  natural  that  a 
missionary  should  take  an  interest  in  his  converts, 
even  to  the  extent  of  going  into  court  with  him  and 
pleading  with  the  magistrate.  But  all  converts  are 
not  in  the  right  nor  all  truthful,  while  the  sight  of  a 
magistrate  bowing  to  missionary  pressure  is  calcu- 
lated to  have  a  very  bad  impression  on  the  crowd — 
and  especially  on  the  evil  characters,  who  see  in  con- 
version a  short  cut  to  triumph  over  their  enemies. 
On  this  last  point  the  Chinese  Government  felt  ex- 
tremely strongly,  as  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  the 
Tsungli  Yamen  in  its  memorandum  drew  up  a  special 
rule  to  deal  with  it. 

The  chief  active  causes  of  offence  introduced  by 
Christianity  into  China  have  now  been  mentioned. 
There  remain  what  we  may  call  the  passive  causes — 
the  proceedings  of  the  medical  missionaries,  the 
establishment  of  conventual  life,  anc^,  the  participation 
of  women  in  the  task  of  evangelization. 

It  is  a  very  unhappy  fact  that  the  medical  mis- 
sionaries, both  male  and  female,  whose  usefulness 
in  China  not  even  the  strongest  opponents  of  missions 
in  that  country  can  deny,  have  been  the  origin  of 
some  of  the  most  virulent  persecutions  of  Christians 
there.  We  have  seen  in  the  events  which  preceded 
the  Tientsin  massacre  how  laudable  actions  such  as 
the  saving  of  infant  life  could  be  misrepresented  by 


82   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

anti-Christian  agitators,  and  that  the  kidnapping  of 
children  was  one  of  the  favourite  accusations  against 
the  foreign  missions.  About  this  time  an  infamous 
pamphlet  was  published,  entitled  A  Deathblow  to 
Corrupt  Doctrines,  whose  charges  against  the  Chris- 
tians Professor  Douglas  well  compares  with  those 
made  against  the  early  Christians  under  the  Roman 
Empire.  The  supposed  author  was  no  less  a  dig- 
nitary than  the  Admiral  of  the  Yangtse  Fleet,  one 
Peng  Yu-lin,  although  he  derived  the  bulk  of  his 
material  from  a  pamphlet  issued  as  early  as  1624, 
when  a  violent  persecution  of  Christians  was  in 
progress.  Peng  brought  up  again  the  gruesomely 
ridiculous  accusations  against  foreigners  of  using  the 
eyes  and  other  parts  of  murdered  Chinese  children 
in  medicine,  in  photography,  and  in  the  conversion 
of  lead  into  silver.  The  supremely  ignorant  rabble 
of  Tientsin  and  elsewhere  accepted  such  charges 
without  hesitation,1  with  the  result  that  the  lives  of 
some  true  philanthropists  were  pitiably  sacrificed. 
Occasionally,  no|  doubt,  these  medical  missionaries 
were  worse  than  unwise,  for  they  have  been  known 
to  exhibit  human  bones,  bottled  specimens,  etc., 
amongst  semi-barbarous  villagers  with  the  same 
assurance  which  they  would  have  shown  in  a  medical 
gathering  at  home.  The  display  of  a  bottled  infant 
is  supposed  to  have  started  the  Yangchow  riot.  Such 
indiscretions,  like  that  of  the  unfortunate  Sisters  of 
Charity  at  Tientsin,  who  encouraged  the  bringing  of 

1  See  Dyer  Ball,  Things  Chinese,  in  the  section  on  "  Riots." 


THE   MISSIONARY   QUESTION          83 

dying  infants  to  the  Orphanage  to  be  baptized,  argue 
ill  for  the  commonsense  of  those  who  committed 
them. 

Conventual  life  has  always  been  looked  on  with 
disfavour  in  China,  and  neither  Buddhist  nor  Taoist 
monks  or  nuns  have  escaped  the  worst  abuse  which 
could  be  heaped  upon  them.1  The  Roman  Catholic 
brotherhoods  and  sisterhoods  could  not  therefore 
hope  to  be  better  treated.  But  still  greater  offence 
was  given  by  the  vagrant  female  missionary  as  she 
enthusiastically  went  about  defying  all  the  Chinese 
notions  of  propriety  for  women.  However  self- 
sacrificing  and  beneficent  she  might  be,  her  morals 
could  not  but  be  suspect,  especially  as  she  gener- 
ally saw  no  harm  in  consorting  freely  with  male 
missionaries. 

China  is  not  the  only  country  where  a  breach  of 
the  conventions  is  a  breach  of  morals — or  worse. 
But  in  China  some  conventions  have  a  peculiar  force 
which  they  perhaps  have  nowhere  else.  And  the 
foreign  missionary  comes  to  China  sworn  to  defy 
these  conventions  and  to  teach  his  flock  to  defy 
them.  He  is  seen  forbidding  homage  to  ancestors, 
making  light  of  the  sages,  denying  the  popular  gods, 
offending  against  the  rules  of  Feng-shui,  setting  his 

1  This  is  true  all  over  China.  Buddhist  nunneries  have  almost 
ceased  to  exist,  however.  With  regard  to  the  monasteries,  I  had  the 
fortune  to  visit  one,  the  Hing-wan  ("  Happy  Clouds  "),  on  the  West 
River,  which  the  Cantonese  captain  of  the  launch  that  took  me 
thither  admitted  to  be  a  good  establishment.  He  was  very  sceptical 
as  to  the  existence  of  any  others  like  it  in  that  part  of  China. 


84   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

clients  above  the  law,  terrorizing  the  magistrates,  and 
encouraging  in  women  an  undue  freedom  of  life.  If 
he  is  touched,  or  if  his  mission-buildings  are  damaged 
by  scandalized  villagers,  or  even  by  an  irresponsible 
mob,  then  armed  force  steps  in  to  avenge  him,  and  at 
the  best  an  indemnity  is  demanded  ;  at  the  worst 
heads  may  fall,  officials  may  be  cashiered,  and  fresh 
towns  may  be  declared  open  ports  for  foreigners  to 
reside  in. 

It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,*  that  the  opposition 
to  Christianity  has  always  come  from  all  classes  alike 
in  China,  though  special  classes  have  had  their  special 
grievances.  The  men  of  letters  complained  that  the 
Christian  teachers  had  no  reverence  for  Confucius, 
Mencius,  and  the  other  beloved  philosophers,  and 
wished  to  replace  the  rules  of  life  drawn  up  by 
them  ;  the  officials,  that  the  missionaries  claimed  to 
rank  with  them,  a  Bishop  with  a  Viceroy,  and  so  on 
down  the  scale  ;  the  common  people,  that  the  new 
teachings  struck  a  severe  blow  at  the  observance  of 
popular  rites  and  holidays.  But  there  was  a  sufficient 
similarity  in  all  the  grievances  to  bind  all  classes 
together  to  present  a  united  front  against  the  invading 
religion,  with  the  result  that  after  so  many  centuries  of 
evangelization  there  certainly  cannot  be  over  a  million 
and  a  quarter  of  converts  to  Christianity  in  China.1 
Indeed,  nine  years  ago  Professor  Parker  put  the 
number  at  half  a  million  only. 

1  This  is  the  figure  given  in  the  "  Twenty-second  Annual  Report 
of  the  Christian  Literature  Society." 


THE   MISSIONARY   QUESTION          85 

The  serious  point  for  consideration  by  the  Chinese 
Government  after  the  Tientsin  massacre  and  its 
unpleasant  consequences  was  how  repetitions  of  such 
occurrences  might  be  avoided.  Those  in  the  Govern- 
ment who  had  any  experience  of  the  "  Western  bar- 
barians "  knew  that  it  was  hopeless  to  try  to  solve  the 
problem  by  persecuting  the  Christians  out  of  exist- 
ence. Even  before  the  foreigner  had  come  with 
armed  force  to  China  this  plan  had  failed,  and  to 
attempt  to  revive  it  now  only  threatened  ruin  to  the 
Empire.  Prince  Kung  and  his  enlightened  colleagues 
at  the  Tsungli  Yamen  set  to  work  in  a  manner 
deserving  of  all  praise  to  find  a  better  way.  They 
must  have  acted  with  the  consent  of  the  Empresses 
Regent,  but  the  initiative  was  clearly  their  own. 
Had  they  been  met  by  the  representatives  of  the 
Powers  in  a  right  spirit,  much  future  strife  and 
misery  might  have  been  saved.  But  the  Powers,  to 
their  shame,  showed  no  sign  of  a  desire  to  help  China 
out  of  a  difficulty  for  which  she  was  far  less  respon- 
sible than  they.  As  usual,  the  representatives  of  the 
West  at  Peking  seemed  powerless  to  combine  for  any 
good  and  unselfish  end. 

It  was  in  the  February  following  the  massacre  of 
Tientsin  that  the  Legations  received  from  the  Tsungli 
Yamen  a  circular  note,  to  which  was  attached  a  memo- 
randum on  the  missionary  question.  This  memoran- 
dum, which  has  been  declared  by  a  British  critic1 
almost  the  only  example  of  true  initiative  with  which 

1  The  late  Alexander  Michie,  China  and  Christianity. 


86   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

the  Tsungli  Yamen  can  be  credited,  gives  evidence  of 
careful  study  of  the  question  by  Prince  Kung  and 
his  colleagues  and  a  strong  desire  to  deal  with  it  in  a 
manner  which  should  not  damage  the  good  relations 
of  China  with  the  West.  At  the  same  time  it  pre- 
sented China's  case  very  forcibly,  supporting  the 
argument  with  specific  instances  of  the  grievances  of 
which  she  complained.  Perhaps  its  most  notable 
phrase  was  the  statement,  alluded  to  above,  that  the 
missionaries  "  seemed  to  be  founding  an  indefinite 
number  of  states  within  the  State  " — a  complaint  of 
which  impartial  Western  observers  have  never  at- 
tempted to  deny  the  justice.  The  general  wording 
of  the  memorandum  gave  some  offence  to  European 
pride,  but  must  be  admitted  to  have  been  singularly 
moderate  for  a  Chinese  official  document. 

With  the  intention  of  turning  their  study  to  prac- 
tical account  the  Chinese  Foreign  Office  proposed  for 
the  consideration  of  the  Legations  eight  rules,  which 
may  be  briefly  summarized  as  follows  : — 

(1)  The    Roman    Catholic    orphanages    shall    be 
strictly  supervised  and  shall  only  take  in  the  children 
of  converts. 

(2)  In  order  to  exhibit  the  strict  propriety  of  the 
Christian  religion,  no  Chinese  women  shall  be  allowed 
to  enter  the  chapels  where  men  are  present,  nor  shall 
foreign  women   engage   in    the   propagation   of   the 
doctrine. 

(3)  Missionaries  shall  not  step  beyond  the  bounds 
of  their  calling  nor  attempt  to  withdraw  themselves, 


THE   MISSIONARY   QUESTION          87 

and  their  native  converts  as  well,  from  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  local  authorities. 

(4)  Missionaries  shall  not  interfere  in  the  affairs  of 
converts  before  the  magistrates. 

(5)  Missionaries  shall  not  transfer  their  passports, 
nor  make   improper  use  of  them  so  as  to  leave  no 
traces  of  their  whereabouts. 

(6)  Evil  characters  shall   not  be  received  as  con- 
verts nor  protected  when  they  have  declared   them- 
selves Christians. 

(7)  Missionaries  shall  not  assume  official  privileges. 

(8)  The  claims,  under  the  French  version  of  the 
Treaty  of  1860,  for  the  restoration  of  any  buildings 
or  property  which  had  ever  belonged  to  the  Roman 
Church  in  China,  regardless  of  the  injustice  done  to 
Chinese  who  have  honestly  bought  and  paid  for  such 
property,  shall  cease. 

Of  these  eight  rules,  none  except  perhaps  the 
second  can  be  called  unreasonable.  It  must  be 
admitted  that  Professor  Douglas  says  that  they 
"  were  so  palpably  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  the  treaty 
that  the  ministers  one  and  all  declined  to  entertain 
the  consideration  of  them  for  a  moment."1  If  that 
be  the  case,  so  much  the  worse  for  the  spirit  of  the 
treaty  ;  and  for  the  credit  of  its  framers  we  should 
prefer  to  substitute  "  letter  "  for  "  spirit." 

The  foreign  representatives  at  Peking,  however, 
showed  no  inclination  to  interpret  treaties  otherwise 

1  China,  p.  369.  On  the  next  page  Professor  Douglas  neverthe- 
less goes  far  toward  justifying  the  suggestions  of  the  Tsungli  Yamen. 


88   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

than  by  strict  adherence  to  the  letter.  They  did  not 
altogether  refuse  to  look  at  the  Tsungli  Yamen's 
suggestion,  but  they  adopted  the  policy  which  they  so 
often  made  a  cause  of  complaint  against  the  Chinese, 
and  interposed  so  many  delays  that  at  last  the 
Yamen  ceased  to  press  for  a  friendly  discussion  of 
the  subject  and  allowed  it  to  drop.  Only  the  United 
States  Minister,  showing  like  many  others  of  his 
country's  representatives  at  Peking  a  fairer  apprecia- 
tion of  China's  rights  than  his  European  colleagues, 
paid  the  Yamen  the  courtesy  of  a  definite  reply  to 
their  proposals  ;  and,  acting  alone,  he  could  do  no 
more  than  make  a  few  criticisms. 

A  great  opportunity  was  thus  lost,  the  result  of 
which  was  unceasing  trouble  down  to  the  present 
day  for  the  Western  Powers,  and  for  China  constant 
unrest,  numberless  "  incidents,"  one  great  war,  and 
the  loss  of  all  her  best  harbours  and  of  millions  of 
dollars  in  the  name  of  reparation  and  indemnity. 

The  missionary  writer,  Dr.  A.  H.  Smith,  has  well 
said  that  the  Tsungli  Yamen's  memorandum  "  re- 
mains a  landmark  in  the  history  of  missionary  rela- 
tions with  China."  There  would  have  been  a  far 
nobler  landmark  in  the  whole  history  of  China  and 
the  West  had  the  envoys  of  the  latter,  in  a  spirit  of 
fairness,  welcomed  the  advances  made  by  the  Chinese 
Foreign  Office  in  1871,  and  agreed  to  a  discussion  of 
the  carefully  considered  suggestions  of  the  memo- 
randum. It  is  the  invariable  custom  of  the  Western 
nations  to  deny  the  genuineness  of  any  attempt  on  the 


THE   MISSIONARY   QUESTION          89 

part  of  the  Government  of  China  towards  a  better 
condition  of  affairs.  "  Chinese  faith  "  is  a  true-born 
descendant  of  that  "  Punic  faith  "  which  figured  so 
largely  in  the  speeches  of  the  Romans  before  the  fall 
of  Carthage.  Yet  if  any  official  document  is  stamped 
with  sincerity  it  is  this  memorandum  of  Prince  Kung 
and  his  colleagues,  and  never  has  the  parrot-cry  of 
ill-faith  been  uttered  with  more  injustice.  The  Prince, 
Wensiang,  and  those  who  acted  with  them,  were,  it 
is  true,  only  temporarily  representative  of  the  Dragon 
Throne.  But,  committed  to  a  definite  policy  toward 
the  missionary  question  by  arrangement  between  the 
Tsungli  Yamen  and  the  Powers,  China  could  have 
been  kept  to  her  promises  in  the  same  way  as  she  has 
been  made  to  observe  those  wrung  from  her  by  force. 
The  Empress  Dowager,  when  she  emancipated  herself 
completely  from  the  guidance  of  her  brother-in-law, 
would  not  have  found  herself  confronted  by  the  same 
old  difficulties  which  had  always  attended  the 
presence  of  the  Christian  missions  in  China,  and 
much  that  is  most  to  be  regretted  in  the  history  of 
China  under  her  regency  would  have  been  averted. 
Never  again  did  a  peaceful  solution  offer  itself  of 
the  gravest  problem  in  the  relations  between  China 
and  the  Western  world,  although  the  Treaty  of 
Shanghai  in  1903  leaves  Great  Britain  under  a 
pledge,  still  waiting  to  be  redeemed,  to  join  with 
China  in  a  Commission  to  investigate  the  missionary 
question. 


CHAPTER  VII 
THE    REIGN   OF   TZE-HI'S   SON 


the  government  of  the  Empire  was  being 
carried  on  in  the  name  of  the  two  Empresses, 
his  legal  and  his  actual  mothers,  and  (as  far  as  foreign 
affairs  were  concerned)  by  the  counsels  of  his  uncle, 
the  young  Tungchih  was  growing  up  to  man's 
estate.  Born  in  the  April  of  1856,  he  was  only 
sixteen  in  the  same  month  of  1872,  according  to  our 
reckoning.  But  the  already  mentioned  Chinese 
method  of  dating  the  commencement  of  life  from 
the  period  of  conception  made  him  seventeen  before 
the  end  of  1872,  and  it  was  decided  that  he  should 
take  an  Empress  in  the  autumn  of  that  year  and 
begin  his  reign  on  the  following  New  Year's  Day. 

The  prescribed  parade  of  Manchu  maidens  was 
held  in  the  Palace  and,  out  of  the  six  hundred  or 
more,  Tungchih  was  stated  to  have  fixed  his  choice 
on  Ahluta,  daughter  of  the  "  Duke  "  Chung-yi,  a 
prominent  Bannerman  and  a  scholar  of  unusual  learn- 
ing for  a  Manchu,  as  he  was  a  Hanlin.  It  was 
rumoured  that  Ahluta  was  actually  the  Emperor's  own 
selection,  although  it  is  certain  that  the  Empresses 
Regent  would  not  have  allowed  this  consideration  to 

have  weighed  with  them,  had  they  not  deemed  the 

90 


THE  DRAGON  THRONE 
The  characters  above  read  :  "  The  Great  Throne  of  light  and  brilliancy ' 


THE   REIGN    OF   TZE-HPS    SON       91 

lady  suitable.  Indeed,  custom  as  well  as  self-interest 
dictated  the  intervention  of  his  mother,  if  living,  to 
help  the  Emperor  in  his  choice  of  consort.  Tze-hi 
was  doubtless  a  willing  go-between.  As  she  proved 
later  in  the  case  of  her  adopted  son  Kwanghsu,  she 
had  no  doubts  as  to  the  necessity  of  the  young 
Empress  being  an  amenable  daughter-in-law  before 
she  was  a  wife  acceptable  to  her  husband.  We  shall 
see,  however,  that  there  is  reason  to  suspect  that  she 
misjudged  the  strength  of  Ahluta's  character,  with 
disastrous  results  to  the  unhappy  daughter-in- 
law. 

The  lady  having  been  chosen,  it  was  left  to  the 
Astronomical  Board  (whose  functions  are  rather  astro- 
logical than  astronomical)  to  discover  the  lucky  day 
and  hour  for  the  wedding.  This  they  found  to  be 
October  i6th,  at  midnight  precisely,  and  to  prevent 
the  possibility  of  the  slightest  error  in  time  one  of 
them  was  deputed  to  walk  beside  the  closed  bridal 
chair  which  took  Ahluta  from  her  father's  house  to 
the  Palace,  holding  in  his  hands  a  candle  which 
marked  the  hours  as  it  burned.  So  at  the  appointed 
moment  the  Emperor  received  his  bride,  having 
already  been  instructed  in  his  duties,  according  to  the 
quaint  Chinese  Imperial  custom,  by  the  female 
"  Professors  of  Matrimony." l 

China  had  now  a  reigning  Emperor  and  Empress, 
and  it  only  remained  for  the  Dowagers  to  step  down 
from  the  position  of  Regents,  which  they  had  occupied 

1  See  Douglas,  China,  p.  373. 


92   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

for  a  dozen  years.  On  February  2jrd  the  Emperor 
issued  the  following  edict : — 

"  We  are  the  humble  recipient  of  a  decree  from 
Their  Majesties  the  Empresses,  declaring  it  to  be 
Their  pleasure  that  We,  being  now  of  full  age,  should 
personally  take  over  the  superintendence  of  affairs 
and,  in  concert  with  Our  officers  in  the  capital  and  in 
the  provinces,  devote  Our  attention  to  the  work  of 
good  government.  In  respectful  obedience  to  the 
commands  of  Their  Majesties,  We  do  in  person  enter 
upon  the  important  duty  assigned  to  Us,  on  the 
twenty-sixth  day  of  the  first  moon  of  the  twelfth 
year  of  the  reign  TUNGCHIH." 

The  accession  of  His  Imperial  Majesty  Tungchih 
was  accompanied  by  the  rise  of  a  question  which 
China  had  been  happy  to  see  in  abeyance  during  the 
twelve  years  of  his  minority.  The  Regents  cannot 
but  have  foreseen  that  this  was  to  be.  There  was, 
however,  no  escape  from  the  difficulty  when  in  the 
natural  course  of  events  even  an  Imperial  boy  must 
grow  up  and  attain  the  age  of  manhood. 

The  question  was  that  of  the  reception  of  foreign 
envoys  at  Peking,  which  had  exercised  the  minds  of 
China  and  the  Western  nations  alike  ever  since  the 
latter  had  first  attempted  to  get  in  touch  with  the 
Dragon  Throne.  In  China  the  proper  way  to  enter 
the  Emperor's  august  presence  is  with  a  triple  series 
of  three  prostrations  ;  the  favoured  one  kneeling, 
with  his  hands  joined  together  and  lifted  to  his  fore- 
head, and  bowing  solemnly  until  his  head  all  but 


THE    REIGN    OF   TZE-HPS    SON        93 

touches  the  ground,  whereon  he  raises  himself, 
separates  his  hands,  and  then  repeats  the  process 
twice  more.  This  is  the  profoundest  form  of  what 
Europeans  call  "  the  kowtow  "  (i.e.  frou-fou^ 
"  knock-head  ").  From  the  first  Peking  insisted  that 
foreigners,  if  they  desired  to  be  presented  to  the 
Emperor,  must  follow  the  prescribed  ceremonial. 
The  matter  was  discussed  at  length  as  early  as  the 
middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  when  a  Russian 
mission  refused  to  comply  with  the  demand  and  left 
the  Chinese  capital  without  seeing  the  Emperor.  A 
Dutch  mission  of  the  same  period  gave  way,  but  the 
other  Powers  declined  to  accept  this  as  a  precedent. 
Lord  Macartney,  Britain's  ambassador  in  1793,  was 
allowed  when  seeing  Kienlung  in  a  tent  in  the  Palace 
grounds  at  Jehol  to  make  a  much  modified  obeisance ; 
but  Lord  Amherst's  mission,  twenty-three  years  after- 
wards, was  a  complete  failure  owing  to  Kiaking's 
insistence  on  the  kowtow.  Under  Taokwang  and 
Hienfung  China's  attitude  never  wavered.  In  1859 
the  representatives  of  the  Chinese  Government  had  a 
friendly  conference  on  the  subject  with  Mr.  Ward, 
the  United  States  Minister  of  the  day.  "  If  we  do 
not  kneel  before  the  Emperor,"  said  one  of  them, 
"  we  do  not  show  him  any  respect.  It  is  that  or 
nothing,  and  this  is  the  same  reverence  which  we  pay 
to  the  gods."  Prince  Kung's  old  father-in-law, 
Kweiliang,  quaintly  told  Ward  that  he  on  his  part 
was  ready  to  burn  incense  before  the  President  of  the 
United  States.  Doubtless  he  remembered  the  pro- 


94   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

posal  at  the  time  of  the  Macartney  mission  that  a 
representative  of  the  Chinese  Government  should 
bow  before  a  picture  of  King  George  in  the  same  way 
as  Macartney  bowed  before  Kienlung. 

Hienfung  had  accepted  the  necessity  of  granting 
an  audience  to  the  envoys  of  the  Powers,  but  by  his 
flight  to  Jehol  he  had  avoided  the  actual  ceremony. 
For  his  son  there  was  no  such  escape.  On  the  day 
after  his  accession  edict  the  foreign  representatives 
asked  Prince  Kung,  still  head  of  the  Tsungli  Yamen, 
to  ascertain  the  Emperor's  pleasure  as  to  the  date 
of  their  reception.  The  Yamen  secured  a  few  weeks' 
delay  through  the  convenient  illness  of  their  secretary, 
Wensiang,  and  then  managed  to  protract  the  discus- 
sion for  four  months.  But  they  fought  in  vain. 
Against  them  they  had  the  firm  determination  of  all 
the  foreign  Governments  represented  at  Peking  to 
obtain  an  audience  without  the  kowtow,  backed  by  the 
fact  that  the  Treaty  of  Tientsin  in  its  third  article 
expressly  stipulated  against  the  observance  of  any 
derogatory  ceremony.  At  last  Prince  Kung  yielded, 
influenced  by  his  nephew's  personal  curiosity  to  see 
what  foreigners  looked  like,  it  was  said.  The  utmost 
he  could  do  for  his  country's  dignity  was  to  arrange 
that  the  audience  should  take  place  not  in  the  Palace, 
but  in  a  building  called  the  Tzu-kwang  Ko^  "  the 
Pavilion  of  Purple  Light,"  on  the  further  side  of  the 
Middle  Lake  which  helps  to  bound  the  Forbidden 
City  to  the  West.  The  representatives  of  the  Powers 
have  been  severely  taken  to  task,  both  in  their  own 


THE    REIGN    OF   TZE-HI'S   SON        95 

days  and  later,  for  agreeing  to  this,  because  this 
pavilion  was  the  place  where  the  Emperor  held  his 
New  Year's  reception  of  the  outer  tribes  of  his 
Empire.  But  probably  they  were  wise  to  allow 
the  Chinese  Government  to  "save  its  face"  in  one 
detail,  while  making  so  large  a  concession  otherwise ; 
for  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  the  conservative  literary 
class  all  over  the  Empire  was  bitterly  opposed  to  the 
omission  of  any  items  whatever  of  the  kowtow  to 
the  Emperor. 

Tungchih,  therefore,  before  June  ended,  received 
into  his  presence  the  Ministers  of  Great  Britain, 
France,  Russia,  Holland,  and  the  United  States,  and 
the  German  Secretary  of  Legation,  the  audience  taking 
place  at  the  early  hour  of  6  a.m.  He  was  sur- 
rounded by  a  great  crowd  of  Imperial  princes  and 
high  dignitaries.  Seated  cross-legged  on  a  raised 
platform,  with  a  small  table  before  him,  he  saw  the 
foreign  envoys  bow  to  him  and  listened  to  the  reading 
of  an  address  in  Chinese,  which  was  then  translated 
into  Manchu,  welcoming  him  to  the  throne  in  the 
name  of  the  nations  of  the  West.  Next  Prince 
Kung  fell  on  his  knees  with  the  full  ceremonial  of 
the  kowtow  and  took  from  his  nephew  the  reply 
to  the  address.  As  he  descended  from  the  dais,  he 
did  not  forget  the  Confucian  rules  of  conduct ;  for 
he  hastened  his  steps,  his  arms  extended  like  wings 
and  his  demeanour  indicative  of  respectful  uneasiness.1 

1  Analects,  x.  5  (Legge).  Professor  Douglas  appears  annoyed  with 
the  Prince  for  his  adherence  to  tradition !  (China,  p.  378). 


96   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

The  Ministers  listened  to  the  reply,  laid  their  creden- 
tials upon  the  small  table,  bowed  again  to  the  Emperor, 
and  retired  backward  from  the  pavilion,  doubtless 
much  pleased  with  their  victory  over  the  exclusive 
prejudices  of  Peking. 

Tungchih,  although  he  began  his  brief  period  of 
actual  reign  with  what  foreign  observers  naturally 
looked  upon  as  a  happy  augury  for  the  progress  of 
his  Empire,  was  destined  to  experience  much  trouble, 
both  external  and  domestic,  before  he  died.  The 
Mohammedan  rebellion  in  Yunnan,  it  is  true,  was  at 
an  end  in  1873,  leaving  the  province  ruined.  The 
other  Mohammedan  rising  was  also  crushed,  as  far  as 
the  Shenkan  provinces  were  concerned,  by  the  energy 
of  the  Viceroy  Tso  Tsung-tang,  though  Kashgaria 
and  Kuldja  still  remained  for  China  to  win  back. 
The  Eighteen  Provinces  were  thus  more  peaceful 
than  they  had  been  for  many  years.  But  in  1874 
two  new  questions  arose  on  the  boundaries  of  the 
Empire  which  damaged  severely  the  prestige  of  China. 
Japan,  in  revenge  for  the  murder  of  some  ship- 
wrecked sailors  by  Formosan  aborigines,  landed 
troops  in  Formosa  and  annexed  the  Loochoo  Islands, 
over  which  China  had  hitherto  exerted  a  shadowy 
suzerainty  for  centuries.  War  seemed  imminent. 
The  Japanese,  however,  were  in  the  end  induced  to 
leave  Formosa  on  payment  of  a  moderate  indemnity  ; 
but  they  retained  the  Loochoos. 

The  other  question  concerned  Annam,  where  China 
had  been  recognized  as  suzerain  Power  almost 


THE    REIGN   OF   TZE-HFS    SON        97 

from  the  beginning  of  the  third  century  A.D.  France, 
coming  on  the  scene  toward  the  end  of  the  eighteenth 
century  and  from  1858  onward  gradually  making  her 
way  into  the  country,  in  1874  forced  the  Annamese 
king  to  sign  a  treaty  which  virtually  handed  over  to 
her  his  North-eastern  province  of  Tonking.  Apart 
from  the  blow  to  China's  suzerainty,  the  presence 
of  the  French  in  Tonking,  into  which  Chinese 
outlaws  from  the  border  provinces  were  constantly 
crossing,  boded  ill  for  peace  in  the  future. 

But,  perhaps  fortunately  for  him,  Tungchih  was 
not  to  see  the  results  of  Japan's  expansion  in  the 
Yellow  Sea  and  France's  establishment  in  the  South. 
With  the  weak  character  which  he  was  supposed  to 
have  he  might  have  brought  ruin  upon  his  Empire 
when  confronted  with  the  difficulties  which  caused  so 
much  anxiety  to  his  strong-minded  mother  and  her 
favourite  statesmen. 

We  do  not  indeed  know  much  that  is  certain 
about  Tungchih's  disposition.  The  common  Chinese 
opinion  of  him  seems  to  be  that  he  rather  resembled 
his  father  Hiengfung,  and  was  feeble  and  dissolute. 
One  strong  reproach  against  him  was  that  he  allowed 
much  power  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  Court 
eunuchs,  the  curse  of  all  the  weaker  Chinese  rulers 
both  of  the  present  and  of  the  preceding  dynasties. 
There  were,  nevertheless,  stories  current  which 
credited  him  with  Haroun  al-Rashid's  fondness  for 
slipping  out  of  the  Palace  by  night  and  personally 
investigating  the  conditions  under  which  his  subjects 


98   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

lived.  Such  conduct,  of  course,  might  be  prompted 
either  by  good  or  bad  motives,  and  it  is  unsafe  to 
draw  any  conclusion  from  the  report  with  regard  to 
Tungchih. 

The  young  man,  however,  ventured  upon  one  act 
during  his  reign  which  seems  to  indicate  the  pos- 
session of  will-power.  Prince  Kung,  although  he 
had  so  ably  guided  China's  foreign  affairs  since  the 
institution  of  the  Tsungli  Yamen,  had  not  pleased 
his  nephew  by  his  attitude  toward  him  personally. 
Matters  suddenly  came  to  a  crisis.  On  September  loth, 
1874,  there  appeared  an  Imperial  edict  degrading  both 
Prince  Kung  and  his  son  Tsaiching  from  their  rank 
as  hereditary  princes.  It  was  explained  that  the 
Prince  had  allowed  himself  to  use  language  "  in  very 
many  respects  unbecoming  "  toward  his  Imperial  kins- 
man. When  we  remember  the  Regent  Empresses' 
edict  of  April,  1865,  we  may  be  inclined  to  believe 
that  the  alleged  cause  of  Prince  Kung's  disgrace  now 
was  also  the  real  one. 

Whatever  the  true  facts  of  the  case,  Peking  was 
profoundly  shaken  by  this  manifestation  of  the 
Emperor's  will.  But  something  more  startling  was 
to  follow.  Since  they  had  made  way  for  Tungchih 
to  ascend  the  throne,  their  Majesties  Tze-hi  and 
Tze-an  had,  to  all  appearance,  really  withdrawn  into 
private  life  and  abstained  from  interference  in  affairs. 
In  the  spring  of  1874  they  had  joined  the  Emperor 
in  a  pilgrimage  to  the  ancestral  tombs  of  the  Ta  Tsing 
dynasty,  eighty  miles  from  Peking,  under  the  guard 


THE   REIGN    OF   TZE-HFS    SON        99 

of  Li  Hung-chang,  Viceroy  of  Chihli.  But  this 
was  a  ceremonial,  not  a  political,  act.  Now  they 
emerged  from  their  obscurity  to  publish  an  edict, 
on  the  very  day  after  Tungchih's,  declaring  in  their 
own  name  that  Prince  Kung  and  his  son  were  re- 
stored to  their  former  rank.  Such  is  the  reverence 
paid  to  "  august  ancestresses "  in  China  that  there 
was  no  question  of  disputing  the  validity  of  the 
second  edict,  and  Tungchih  himself  accepted  the 
situation  without  any  protest  of  which  the  outer 
world  heard.  Perhaps  his  intention  of  asserting 
himself  was  cut  short  by  the  illness  which  very  soon 
after  brought  his  reign  to  an  end. 

Early  in  December  a  pompously  polite  decree 
announced  to  the  Empire  that  their  sovereign  was 
"happily"  ill  with  smallpox.  On  the  i8th  of  the 
same  month  another  appeared,  in  which  he  besought 
the  Dowager  Empresses  in  their  overflowing  benevo- 
lence to  take  over  the  government  of  the  Empire 
until  he  should  recover  from  his  sickness.  On 
the  24th  yet  another  stated  that  his  condition  was 
hopeful,  and  bestowed  generous  rewards  on  the 
Imperial  physicians.  But  rumours  of  a  turn  for  the 
worse  soon  followed,  and  then  a  report  of  his  death. 
This  proved  to  be  true.  Tungchih  expired  on,  or 
perhaps  before,  January  I2th,  1875,  in  the  nineteenth 
year  of  his  age.  In  spite  of  the  circumstantial  details 
in  the  various  edicts  concerning  his  attack  of  small- 
pox, Tze-hi's  Chinese  enemies  have  not  hesitated  to 
impute  to  her  the  murder  of  her  son,  and  a  few 


ioo   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

English  writers  have  repeated  the  horrible  accusation 
without  making  any  attempt  to  verify  it.  Like 
Catherine  the  Great  of  Russia,  Tze-hi  has  had  to 
bear  the  brunt  of  many  charges  of  murder.  It  is 
probable  that  the  Chinese  Empress  is  more  justly  the 
subject  of  some  such  charges  than  the  Russian,  for 
the  cruelty  alleged  against  Catherine  is  difficult  to 
find  (unless  it  be  in  the  case  of  her  husband),  whereas 
Tze-hi  only  too  often  showed  herself  ruthless  in 
pursuit  of  her  ends.  The  murder  of  one's  own  son, 
however,  is  very  different  from  the  removal  of  an 
ordinary  enemy  from  one's  path,  and  it  is  satisfactory 
to  discover  no  real  ground  for  branding  China's 
greatest  woman  ruler  with  the  stigma  of  so  black  a 
crime. 

A  curious  echo  of  Tungchih's  death  was  heard 
fifteen  years  later.  It  happened  that  a  transit  of  the 
planet  Venus  occurred  on  December  9th,  1874,  the 
day  on  which  the  Emperor's  smallpox  declared  itself. 
Peking  being  a  favourable  spot  for  watching  this 
transit,  two  American  astronomers  had  come  to  the 
Chinese  capital  with  a  large  telescope  to  make 
observations.  Owing  to  the  superstitious  fears  of 
the  Chinese,  however,  they  were  unable  to  carry  out 
their  purposes,  and  were  obliged  to  leave  in  a  hurry 
to  escape  trouble.  Now  in  a  Boxer  proclamation  of 
May,  1900,  we  find  the  Barbarians  accused  of  causing 
Tungchih's  death  in  the  following  terms  :— 

"  They  arrived  with  a  great  telescope,  which  they 
set  up  on  the  ground.  Then,  all  of  a  sudden,  a 


THE   REIGN   OF   TZE-HI'S    SON      101 

black  spot  appeared  on  the  radiant  orb,  and  two  days 
later  the  Emperor  died  of  the  Black  Flowers.  Is  not 
the  Sun  the  symbol  of  Imperial  Majesty?  And  did 
not  the  moving  spot  represent  the  terrible  evil  which 
the  Ocean  Devils  caused  to  cross  through  space  by 
the  use  of  their  telescope  ?  Thus  they  brought 
about  the  death  of  the  Lord  of  Ten  Thousand  Years. 
And,  instead  of  expiating  their  crime  by  the  punish- 
ment of  lingchih,  they  escaped  by  the  help  of  their 
consuls." 

Chinese  superstition  was  eager  to  make  out  that 
Tungchih  was  as  unlucky  in  his  burial  as  in  his  reign 
and  in  his  death.  In  violation  of  the  laws  of  Feng- 
shui,  it  was  said,  he  was  interred  in  the  same 
cemetery  as  his  father  Hienfung,  whereas,  following 
precedent,  his  grave  should  have  been  in  the  West 
like  his  grandfather's.  For  this  breach  of  funeral 
propriety  China  was  bound  to  be  punished.  And  did 
not  the  Empire  a  few  years  later  suffer  from  a  terrible 
famine  ? 

If  Tungchih's  reign  closed  with  an  ill-omened 
defiance  of  convention,  that  of  his  successor  began 
still  more  unluckily  ;  and,  strange  to  relate,  it  was 
mainly  through  the  influence  of  Tze-hi,  for  all  her 
strength  of  mind  a  victim  of  the  grossest  super- 
stition,1 that  this  evil  thing  was  brought  to  pass,  if 
the  ordinarily  accepted  view  of  the  coup  d'tiat  of  1875 
be  correct. 

1  Yet  she  could  be  a  courageous  violator  of  all  traditions  on 
occasions,  as  we  shall  see. 


CHAPTER   VIII 

TZE-HI   THE    EMPEROR-MAKER 

HT^HE  Emperor  Tungchih  being  dead  without 
leaving  a  son  and  without  nominating  a 
successor  (as  far  as  is  known  to  history),  the  Dragon 
Throne  became  vacant  for  the  first  time  since  the 
"  Great  Pure "  dynasty  began  to  rule  over  China. 
The  task  fell,  therefore,  to  those  who  could  exert 
their  authority  best  in  the  unusual  condition  of  affairs 
to  find  a  successor  whom  the  Empire  would  accept  as 
the  new  Son  of  Heaven.  On  the  recognized  principle 
of  inheritance  in  the  Imperial  family  this  would  have 
been  easy  had  there  been  a  brother  of  Tungchih  with 
a  son,  however  young.  But  Tungchih,  having  been 
an  only  son,  had  no  nephew,  in  the  male  line,  at 
least.  Failing  a  son  or  nephew  of  the  deceased,  the 
next  heir  would  have  been  some  other  member  of  the 
Imperial  family  in  the  same  generation.  But  owing 
to  the  fact  that  both  Hienfung  and  Tungchih  were 
shortlived  (there  were  only  forty-five  years  between 
the  birth  of  the  father  and  the  death  of  the 
son)  there  may  very  possibly  have  been  no  one 
yet  born  of  the  right  generation  to  succeed  the  late 
Emperor.  If  this  was  the  case,  then  the  unfortunate 
necessity  arose  of  going  back  to  the  generation  to 


TZE-HI   THE   EMPEROR-MAKER      103 

which  Tungchih  himself  had  belonged — the  category 
of  the  Tsais.1  This  meant  that  the  new  Emperor 
would  not  be  in  a  position  to  perform  the  proper 
ancestral  rites  in  honour  of  his  predecessor,  which,  if 
not  performed  by  the  actual  son,  should  at  least  be 
performed  by  someone  of  the  same  generation  in  the 
family  descent,  if  the  wrath  of  Heaven  was  not  to  be 
incurred. 

If  one  of  the  Tsai  category  must  succeed  to  the 
throne,  it  might  have  seemed  that  Prince  Kung's  son, 
Tsaiching,  was  the  most  likely  candidate.  But  here 
again  a  difficulty  arose  through  the  Chinese  ideas  on 
propriety.  If  Tsaiching  became  Emperor,  his  own 
father  would  be  obliged  to  do  him  reverence  ;  or, 
rather,  would  be  obliged  to  retire  into  private  life  in 
order  to  avoid  the  necessity  of  doing  so.  Prince 
Kung  could  not  yet  be  spared  from  the  Foreign 

1  All  members  of  the  Imperial  family  were  named  according  to  the 
generation  in  which  they  were  born.  Thus  the  Emperor  Taokwang 
was  originally  Prince  Mien-ning,  and  his  brothers  and  male  cousins 
were  all  Mien-something,  e.g.  Prince  Tun  was  Mien-kai.  So  the 
Emperor  Hienfung  was  originally  Yi-chu,  his  brothers  Princes  Kung, 
Chun,  etc.,  were  Yi-hin,  Yi-hwan,  etc.  The  Emperor  Tungchih 
was  originally  Tsai-chun,  his  cousin  the  Emperor  Kwanghsu  was 
Tsai-tien,  and  other  cousins  were  Tsai-ching,  son  of  Prince  Kung ; 
Tsai-feng,  whom  we  now  know  as  the  Regent,  Prince  Chun ;  and 
Tsai-tso,  the  prince  who  so  recently  visited  England.  The  next 
generation  are  all  P'us,  like  the  present  infant  Emperor  P'u-yi  (whose 
reign  name  is  Hsuantung),  while  the  heir-apparent  discarded  by  the  old 
Empress  Dowager  was  P'u-chun.  There  is  a  convenience  about  this 
system  of  nomenclature,  since  one  can  always  tell  to  what  generation  a 
member  of  the  Imperial  family  belongs  if  one  knows  his  original 
Manchu  name  before  he  becomes  Prince  This  or  That. 


104  GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

Office,  however.  In  view  of  the  fact  that  Prince 
Chun  did  actually  hold  office  during  the  reign  of  his 
son  Kwanghsu,  the  objection  does  not  seem  to  have 
been  insuperable,  and  it  is  suggested  that  the 
Dowager  Empresses  made  undue  use  of  it  in  order 
to  debar  from  the  throne  the  lineage  of  their  over- 
weening brother-in-law.  Prince  Chun  having  taken 
very  little  part  hitherto  in  public  affairs,  and  having 
an  infant  son  who  would  remain  a  minor  for  many 
years  to  come,  there  was  an  obvious  advantage  for 
the  prospective  Regents  to  see  his  son  proclaimed 
rather  than  Kung's,  especially  as  Chun's  wife  was 
sister  of  the  more  powerful  of  the  two  ladies. 

The  selection  of  the  child  Emperor  in  1875  ^as 
been  almost  universally  described  as  Tze-hi's  coup 
d'etat,  and  some  accounts  make  her,  supported  as 
usual  by  Tze-an,  produce  before  the  assembly  of 
Imperial  clansmen  after  Tungchih's  death  a  will  that 
she  alleged  to  have  been  left  by  her  son,  in  which  he 
chose  his  cousin  Tsaitien  to  succeed  him.1  Whether 
or  not  she  did  this  later,  she  seems  early  to  have 
foreseen  the  possibility  of  a  disputed  succession,  and 
to  have  made  her  plans  beforehand.  The  story  goes 
that  she  had  warned  her  friend  Li  Hung-chang  to  be 

1  The  succession  edict,  however,  merely  says  :  "  Whereas  His 
Majesty  the  Emperor  has  ascended  upon  the  Dragon  to  be  a  guest  on 
high,  without  offspring  born  to  His  inheritance,  there  has  been  no 
course  open  but  to  cause  Tsaitien,  son  of  Yihwan,  Prince  of  Chun,  to 
be  adopted  as  son  of  the  Emperor  [Hienfung]  and  to  enter  upon  the 
inheritance  of  the  Great  Dynasty  as  Emperor  by  succession.  There- 
fore let  Tsaitien,"  etc. 


p.  104 


TZE-HI   THE   EMPEROR-MAKER      105 

ready  to  march  to  Peking  immediately  he  received 
news  that  Tungchih's  death  was  imminent.  The 
Viceroy  of  Chihli  obeyed  without  hesitation.  Taking 
with  him  four  thousand  picked  troops,  all  from  his 
own  native  province  of  Anhui,  he  made  a  forced 
march  from  Tientsin  to  Peking,  covering  the  eighty 
miles  in  a  day  and  a  half,  although  it  was 
mid-winter.  At  midnight  after  Tungchih's  decease1 
he  reached  the  walls  of  the  Forbidden  City 
and  at  once  seized  all  the  gates,  driving  away 
the  unprepared  and  astonished  guards.  In  the 
meantime,  Tze-hi  and  the  other  Empress  had 
hastened  out  of  the  Palace  in  two  covered  sedan- 
chairs,  accompanied  by  a  very  small  retinue  so  as  not 
to  attract  attention,  and  made  their  way  through  the 
snow  to  the  house  in  the  Tartar  City  where  Prince 
Chun  and  his  family  lived.  Proceeding  to  her 
nephew's  nursery,  Tze-hi  took  him  out  of  bed,  wrapt 
him  up,  and  carried  him  down  to  her  chair.  Then 
the  procession  started  back  as  quietly  as  it  had  come. 
At  the  gate  of  the  Forbidden  City  the  faithful  Li  was 
waiting,  master  of  the  Palace.  Next  morning  the 
Emperor  Kwanghsu  ("  Illustrious  Succession "  or 
"  Continuation  of  Glory ")  was  proclaimed.  The 
Imperial  clansmen,  if  not  convinced  by  a  production 
of  an  alleged  will,  were  unable  to  ignore  the  accom- 
plished fact.  We  hear  of  no  attempt  on  the  part  of 

1  Or  perhaps  we  should  say  "  after  Tungchih's  decease  was  made 
public,"  for  it  is  said  that  the  news  of  the  Emperor's  death  was  kept 
back  until  the  Dowager  Empress's  plan  was  ready  for  execution. 


106   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

the  princes  to  contest  the  succession  on  behalf  of  any 
other  candidate,  although  many  clansmen  were  sup- 
posed to  be  anxious  to  see  Tsaiching  on  the  throne 
and  the  Dowager  Empresses  permanently  relegated  to 
obscurity.  Kung  himself  met  the  blow  to  any  hopes 
he  may  have  entertained  as  he  met  all  blows  to  his 
ambition,  before  or  after — with  passive  acquiescence. 

Kwanghsu  being  now  Emperor  at  the  age  of  four, 
a  regency  was  needed.  The  former  Empresses 
Regent  naturally  resumed  their  task,  having  proved 
their  capacity  for  it  during  so  many  years  and  being 
so  closely  connected  by  blood  with  the  new  sovereign. 
Only  a  few  of  the  Palace  eunuchs  were  recalcitrant. 
That  famous  Chinese  classic,  the  Book  of  Poetry, 
says  that  "  among  those  who  cannot  be  trained  or 
taught  are  women  and  eunuchs."  The  eunuchs  of  the 
Forbidden  City  certainly  appeared  anxious  to  prove 
the  justice  of  part  of  the  maxim.  Often  as  they  had 
suffered  for  their  meddling  with  politics  under  the 
Ta  Tsing  dynasty,  they  were  always  ready  to  continue 
in  their  ways.  The  latitude  which  Tungchih  had 
allowed  them  during  his  short  reign  perhaps  en- 
couraged them  in  their  folly  now.  But  the  Regents 
quickly  brought  them  to  book,  arresting  seven  among 
them,  of  whom  three  were  transported  to  the 
Northern  frontier  of  the  Empire  and  four  severely 
bastinadoed.  After  this  we  do  not  hear  of  trouble 
with  the  Court  eunuchs  for  many  years  to  come. 

The  Empresses,  having  carried  out  their  plan  (or 
rather  the  plan  of  one  of  them)  with  surprisingly 


TZE-HI   THE   EMPEROR-MAKER      107 

little  opposition,  allowed  Viceroy  Li  Hung-chang  to 
take  back  to  Tientsin  the  troops  with  which  he  had 
secured  success  for  them.  They  had  some  difficulties 
still  in  their  path,  but  not  such  as  required  a  display 
of  armed  force  to  dispose  of  them. 

The  most  pressing  difficulty  was  to  reconcile  with 
the  laws  of  succession  their  nephew's  position  on  the 
throne.  In  order  to  give  him  the  proper  status  he 
must  be  adopted  as  son  to  a  predecessor.  But 
Tungchih,  his  first  cousin,  having  been  in  the  same 
generation,  could  not  figure  in  the  records  as  his 
father.  To  give  some  semblance  of  legitimacy  to 
the  transaction,  therefore,  Kwanghsu  was  adopted  as 
son  to  Hienfung,  dead  fourteen  years  before,  while 
it  was  stipulated  that  if  he  should  himself  be  blessed 
with  a  male  child  that  child  should  carry  on  the 
succession  as  Tungchih's  heir.  This  device  did  not 
satisfy  the  champions  of  tradition.  One  of  the 
Censors  felt  the  irregularity  so  strongly  that  he  com- 
mitted suicide  as  a  protest  against  the  condemnation 
of  his  late  master's  spirit  to  a  long  period  of  waiting 
for  the  proper  performance  of  the  ancestral  honours 
due  to  him  ;  and  the  superstitious  remembered  the 
irregularity  when  in  the  first  year  after  Kwanghsu's 
actual  accession  the  Temple  of  Heaven  was  struck 
by  lightning.  But  if  there  was  no  one  of  the  proper 
category  yet  born  to  succeed  Tungchih,  the  Dowager 
Empresses  had  no  better  resource  at  their  command 
than  to  choose  someone  of  an  older  generation. 

Of  course  the  affiliation  of  Kwanghsu  to  Hienfung 


io8   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

was  a  good  stroke  for  the  two  widows  of  that 
Emperor,  even  if  it  caused  further  doubt  to  be  cast 
on  their  motives,  already  under  suspicion  through 
their  selection  of  so  young  an  heir.  They  became 
mothers,  by  adoption,  of  the  child,  and  thus  practi- 
cally secure  against  any  attack  short  of  open  rebellion 
against  the  dynasty.  Provided  that  they  should 
themselves  live  long  enough,  they  were  sure  of  many 
more  years  at  the  head  of  affairs. 

Where,  it  may  be  asked,  was  Tungchih's  widow 
while  her  mothers-in-law  were  arranging  matters  so 
much  to  their  own  advantage  ?  Why  was  she  un- 
consulted  in  the  disposition  of  power  during  the 
minority  of  her  husband's  successor  ?  We  now  come 
to  a  charge  against  the  stronger  of  the  two  Dowager 
Empresses  which  a  large  number,  of  her  Chinese 
subjects  at  least,  held  to  be  true.  The  young  Empress 
Ahluta,  had  she  borne  a  son  to  Tungchih,  would 
naturally  have  become  Regent  until  he  grew  up. 
And  it  was  rumoured  that  Tungchih  at  his  death  left 
her  with  child.  Two  months  and  a  half  after  her 
husband,  however,  Ahluta  herself  died.  The  tales 
were  various.  Some  said  her  sorrow  as  a  widow 
induced  her  to  refuse  food  until  at  last  she  died  of 
starvation  ;  others  that  she  took  her  own  life  by 
more  violent  means  ;  while  among  the  Chinese  in 
particular  many  believed  that  there  was  foul  play. 
Those  most  hostile  to  Tze-hi  made  her  personally 
bring  to  her  daughter-in-law  a  poisoned  cup  and  force 
her  to  drink  it.  No  evidence  is  forthcoming  for  or 


TZE-HI   THE   EMPEROR-MAKER      109 

against  this  most  sensational  version  of  the  story, 
beyond  the  significant  fact1  that  the  young  Empress's 
family  had  no  quarrel  with  the  Dowager  Tze-hi, 
whom  the  Duke  Chungyi  continued  to  serve  down 
to  the  time  of  the  Boxer  rebellion,  when  he  com- 
mitted suicide  after  the  Court  had  fled  as  far  as 
Paotingfu.  From  this  it  hardly  looks  as  if  Ahluta's 
father  believed  his  Imperial  mistress  guilty  of  the 
crime  which  her  enemies  imputed  to  her.  The  most 
that  can  be  said  in  support  of  the  charge  is  that,  if 
Ahluta  was  really  with  child,  the  chance  of  her  bear- 
ing a  son  threatened  Tze-hi's  ambitions  with  extinc- 
tion ;  and  the  promptitude  with  which  she  grasped 
the  opportunity  offered  by  Tungchih's  death,  set  her 
infant  nephew  on  the  throne,  and  secured  the  Regency 
for  herself  and  her  colleague  the  Eastern  Empress, 
showed  how  strongly  those  ambitions  swayed  her. 

Ahluta  being  dead,  it  was  given  out  to  the  public 
of  Peking  and  of  the  Empire  that  she  had  succumbed 
to  grief  at  the  loss  of  her  husband,  and  every  effort 
was  made  to  produce  the  impression  that  her  Im- 
perial relatives  regarded  her  as  an  exemplary  wife. 
A  memorial  was  sent  up  to  the  Throne,  signed  by 
the  Dowager  Empress's  invariable  friend  in  need, 
Li  Hung-chang,  among  others,  petitioning  that  the 
deceased  lady  should  be  rewarded  by  the  bestowal  of 
some  posthumous  titles  of  honour.  The  Throne 
graciously  welcomed  the  suggestion,  and  ordered  the 

1  First  brought  forward,  I  believe,  by  Professor  Headland,  Court 
Life  in  China,  pp.  40-41. 


i  io   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

ministers  to  select  suitable  epithets.  Then  from  two 
alternative  series  of  twelve  honorifics  a  final  choice 
was  made  and  Ahluta  was  gazetted  under  the  name 
of  "  The  Filial,  Wise,  Excellent,  Yielding,  Chaste, 
Careful,  Virtuous,  and  Intelligent  Queen,  governing 
her  Conduct  by  Heaven's  Laws,  and  by  her  Life 
adding  Lustre  to  the  Teaching  of  the  Sages."  So, 
in  a  blaze  of  wordy  magnificence,  ended  the  con- 
nection of  Chungyi's  daughter  with  the  Imperial 
family. 

The  Empresses  of  the  Eastern  and  Western 
Palaces,  free  from  any  fear  of  a  rival  to  their  nominee 
on  the  throne,  continued  to  entrust  the  superin- 
tendence of  China's  foreign  relations  to  Prince  Kung. 
It  is  possible  that  the  influence  of  the  Eastern 
Empress  was  exerted  on  his  behalf,  for  after  Tze-an's 
death  he  did  not  long  remain  in  power.  Tze-hi  had 
obvious  reasons  for  preferring  Prince  Chun,  who  was 
doubly  her  brother-in-law  (husband  of  her  sister  as 
well  as  brother  of  her  late  husband),  and  whose  son 
was  now  hers  by  adoption.  Her  relations  with  Kung, 
on  the  other  hand,  could  scarcely  be  cordial  after  the 
coup  d'etat  of  1875.  While,  therefore,  she  did  not 
disturb  the  senior  Prince's  position  at  the  head  of  the 
Tsungli  Yamen,  she  took  care  to  put  a  check  upon  his 
authority  by  increasing  the  confidence  which  she  gave 
to  those  who  were  not  at  all  in  sympathy  with  him. 
As  we  shall  see  later,  she  had  a  very  good  conception 
of  the  importance  of  a  balance  of  power  among  men 
of  different  views  in  order  to  ensure  a  stable  govern- 


TZE-HI    THE   EMPEROR-MAKER       in 

ment.  Only  at  one  period  in  her  long  career,  and 
then  with  most  disastrous  results,  did  she  seem  to 
throw  herself  entirely  into  the  arms  of  one  party. 

The  grouping  of  the  Peking  politicians  at  this 
period  is  by  no  means  easy  to  follow.  Only  Prince 
Kung's  position  seems  clear.  Of  great  experience  in 
foreign  affairs,  full  of  tact,  liked  by  foreigners  and 
trusted  by  them  as  they  trusted  no  one  else  in  China, 
he  was  maintained  in  his  high  office  by  the  fact  that 
he  was  still  indispensable.  Prince  Chun,  suspected 
by  foreigners  of  hatred  for  them  and  of  warlike 
tendencies,  was  beginning  to  make  his  influence  felt 
in  spite  of  the  fact  that  his  relation  to  the  Emperor 
minor  seemed  to  doom  him  to  private  life,  and  it 
was  seen  that  he  was  not  likely  to  work  in  harmony 
with  his  brother. 

Li  Hung-chang,  unrivalled  among  those  of  his 
own  race,  and  designed  by  the  Western  Empress 
to  serve  as  a  protection  for  her  against  the  undue 
power  of  the  Manchu  princes,  was  yet,  by  his  know- 
ledge of  foreigners  and  his  appreciation  of  the  dangers 
of  war  for  China,  drawn  somewhat  toward  an  under- 
standing with  Prince  Kung.  In  the  meantime,  he  put 
the  Regents  and  his  country  still  further  in  his  debt 
by  settling  with  Great  Britain's  representative,  Sir 
Thomas  Wade,  the  question  of  the  reparation  to  be 
made  by  China  for  the  murder  of  an  unfortunate 
young  consular  official,  Margary,  near  the  Yunnan- 
Burma  frontier  early  in  1875,  and  he  handled  with 
vigour  and  ability  the  dreadful  situation  arising  from 


ii2    GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

famine  in  Honan  and  Shansi,  which  led  to  the  death 
of  about  nine  million  people  in  1876  and  the  follow- 
ing years.  Li  returned  to  his  duties  as  Viceroy  and 
Grand  Secretary  with  increased  power — but  also,  no 
doubt,  with  an  increased  number  of  enemies,  for 
he  had  dealt  severely  with  embezzling  officials  in  con- 
nection with  the  famine-relief  fund. 

Next  to  Li  Hung-chang  there  was  no  one  of 
Chinese  race  who  strengthened  his  position  so  much 
during  the  early  years  of  Kwanghsu's  minority  as  Tso 
Tsung-tang,  Viceroy  of  the  Shenkan  provinces. 
Beginning  public  life  like  Li  under  the  protection 
of  the  great  Tseng  Kwo-fan,  Tso  had  made  himself 
famous  by  his  suppression  of  the  Mohammedan 
(Tungan)  rebellion  in  the  Shenkan  ;  and  in  1878  he 
had  the  satisfaction  of  crushing  the  Tungans  in  the 
outlying  North-west  portion  of  the  Empire  as  well. 
Already  he  had  been  appointed  to  the  Grand  Secre- 
tariat and  the  Tsungli  Yamen,  and  henceforward  his 
views  carried  great  weight.  At  once  brave  and 
cautious,  an  admirable  organizer,  and  a  most  intelli- 
gent student  of  public  affairs,  he  was  nevertheless 
suspected  by  foreigners  of  a  leaning  toward  the  use 
of  force  and  of  sympathy  with  Prince  Chun.  A 
memorial  which  he  left  behind  him  on  his  death, 
however,  argues  that  he  had  liberal  and  progressive 
ideas. 

An  incident  occurred  after  the  close  of  the  Tungan 
rebellion  which  threatened  to  split  Peking  into  hostile 
camps  and  upset  the  balance  of  power  which  the 


TZE-HI    THE   EMPEROR-MAKER       113 

Empress  Tze-hi  had  already  begun  to  create.  Russia, 
taking  advantage  of  the  disturbed  condition  of 
affairs  on  her  Eastern  frontier  through  the  prolonged 
rebellion  in  Chinese  territory,  in  1871  occupied 
the  region  known  as  Kuldja  or  Hi,  nominally  in  order 
to  preserve  order  there.  When  Tso  Tsung-tang, 
seven  years  later,  had  brought  the  rebellion  to  an  end 
and  had  incorporated  the  reconquered  region  outside 
the  Eighteen  Provinces  under  the  name  of  the  "  New 
Dominion,"  a  Russian  Governor  was  still  holding  Hi 
for  the  Tsar.  Representations  to  the  Russian  repre- 
sentatives in  Peking  availed  nothing,  and  it  was 
resolved  to  send  a  special  commissioner  to  St.  Peters- 
burg. The  man  chosen  was  the  Manchu  Chunghow, 
whom  we  have  already  met  at  the  time  of  the  Tientsin 
massacre.  As  he  had  been  on  a  mission  to  Paris — 
sent  to  apologize  for  China  over  the  Tientsin  affair 
—he  was  supposed  to  be  acquainted  with  the  methods 
of  European  diplomacy,  although  he  could  not  speak 
a  word  of  any  European  language  ;  and  the  Empresses 
Regent,  receiving  him  in  farewell  audience  in  the 
August  of  1878,  no  doubt  felt  confidence  that  all 
would  be  well.  They  were  greatly  mistaken.  Seven- 
teen months  later  Chunghow  landed  in  Shanghai  and 
set  out  for  Peking  with  the  Treaty  of  Livadia  in  his 
hand. 

But  news  of  what  he  had  done  preceded  him.  He 
had  left  Russia  with  the  most  valuable  part  of  Hi 
still  in  her  possession,  and  had  agreed  to  pay  her 
an  indemnity  equivalent  to  ^500,000  for  the  expenses 


ii4    GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

of  her  occupation  of  the  province.  A  tremendous 
outcry  arose  all  over  the  country.  Memorials  from 
Li  Hung-chang,  Tso  Tsung-tang,  Chang  Chih-tung, 
and  others  called  for  the  denunciation  of  the  treaty. 
Chang  Chih-tung,  now  first  making  a  name  for 
himself,  was  especially  bitter  in  his  attack  on  the 
blundering  or  venal  commissioner.1  The  mass  of 
the  Manchus,  too,  were  against  him,  from  Prince 
Chun  downward  ;  and  Prince  Kung,  of  whose  wife 
he  was  a  connection,  was  unable  to  shield  him  from 
the  storm.  An  Imperial  edict  having  stripped  him 
of  all  his  offices,  he  was  arrested  and  condemned 
to  be  beheaded.  His  treaty  was  repudiated,  and  a 
demand  was  presented  for  fresh  negotiations.  There 
was  even  talk  of  war  if  Russia  should  refuse  to 
reconsider  the  matter,  the  Imperial  princes,  with  the 
exception  of  Prince  Kung,  showing  the  boldness 
of  ignorance  and  pressing  for  immediate  action. 
Even  Tso  Tsung-tang,  it  was  rumoured,  pronounced 
himself  in  favour  of  war.  But  Li  Hung-chang  had 
no  hesitation  in  declaring  that  China  was  doomed 
to  defeat  if  she  took  up  arms. 

It  required  true  courage  on  the  part  of  the  great 
Viceroy  to  adopt  this  attitude,  for  he  had  for  years 
been  spending  huge  sums  of  money  on  military  and 
naval  preparations  in  his  province.  He  brought 
down  upon  himself  now,  as  he  must  have  expected, 

1  "  If  he  cannot  bequeath  a  fragrance  for  ten  centuries,  at  least  he 
can  leave  a  stench  for  ten  thousand  years."  So  said  Viceroy  Chang 
(Parker,  John  Chinaman,  p.  215). 


TZE-HI   THE   EMPEROR-MAKER      115 

fierce  censure  for  his  "  useless  expenditure."  But, 
supported  by  the  Dowager  Empress  Tze-hi  and 
Prince  Kung,  he  was  unmoved  by  abuse.  War  was 
not  declared,  and  the  extreme  Nationalists  had 
not  even  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  Chunghow 
beheaded.  Partly  through  the  intervention  of  the 
Governments  of  Russia  and  England,  partly  through 
the  influence  of  Prince  Kung  and  of  Viceroy 
Li,  who  was  friendly  to  the  man  if  disapprov- 
ing of  his  conduct,  his  sentence  was  commuted. 
Russia  then  agreed  to  reopen  negotiations,  and 
finally  a  new  arrangement  was  made  whereby  China 
recovered  all  but  a  small  strip  of  Hi,  while  increasing 
her  indemnity  for  the  cost  of  Russia's  occupation  to 
^900,000. 

A  dangerous  question  thus  closed  in  a  manner 
very  honourable  to  China,  and  much  credit  is  due  to 
Li  Hung-chang  and  his  Imperial  mistress  for  the  part 
which  they  played  in  the  affair — to  Li  for  having  the 
courage  to  insist  on  his  country's  unpreparedness  for 
war  when  he  himself  caused  the  greatest  amount  of 
money  to  be  spent  on  war-materials  ;  to  the  Empress 
because  she  stood  by  Li  when  the  Imperial  family 
were  nearly  all  ranged  on  the  other  side.  But 
mistress  and  man  were  destined  to  find  themselves  in 
a  very  similar  position  more  than  once  again  in  their 
careers. 

The  recovery  of  Hi  was  the  last  important  act  of 
the  joint  Regency,  which  indeed  came  to  an  end 
before  China  had  reoccupied  her  former  territory. 


ii6   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

On  April  9th,  1881,  the  Empress  of  the  Eastern 
Palace  died  suddenly,  aged  about  forty-five.  The 
death  was  supposed  to  be  due  to  heart-failure  ;  but  if 
the  farewell  edict  which  was  issued  in  her  name,  call- 
ing on  the  child  Emperor  to  restrain  his  sorrow  at 
her  departure,  was  really  her  composition,  she  was 
prepared  for  her  end. 

That  Tze-hi  should  have  been  accused  of  making 
away  with  her  colleague  must  be  regarded  as  a  proof 
of  the  extreme  malice  which  actuated  her  enemies. 
Of  all  people  the  Empress  Tze-an  was  certainly  the 
one  who  least  stood  in  the  way  of  Tze-hi's  ambition. 
Having  lived  together  for  nearly  thirty  years,  in  cir- 
cumstances which  were  calculated  to  bring  about  a 
quarrel  between  most  rivals  of  the  harem  within  as 
many  days,  and  having  never  during  that  period  given 
just  occasion  for  the  Court  gossips  to  talk  of  dissen- 
sions between  them,  the  two  Empresses  should  surely 
be  allowed  to  have  been  of  singularly  harmonious 
dispositions,  and  it  is  unnecessary  to  seek  to  explain 
the  death  of  one  by  the  treachery  of  the  other.  The 
murder  of  Tze-an  would  have  been  a  useless  crime, 
and  Tze-hi,  ruthless  as  she  was  when  she  saw  a  call 
for  drastic  measures  to  further  her  plans,  does  not 
stand  convicted  of  any  useless  crimes.  There  was  no 
need  for  the  latter  to  grasp  at  the  shadow  of  power  in 
the  former's  hands  when  she  had  already  the  sub- 
stance in  her  own. 


CHAPTER   IX 

TZE-HI   SOLE    REGENT 

'  I  VHE  Empress  Dowager  Tze-hi  was  about  forty- 
six  years  of  age  when  she  became  sole  ruler  of 
the  Chinese  Empire  on  behalf  of  the  child  whom 
she  had  herself  chosen  to  sit  upon  the  throne.  Nor 
was  her  authority  an  unreal  one  compared  with  that 
of  any  of  the  Emperors  who  had  governed  China 
before  her.  She  was  not  an  absolute  despot,  it  is 
true,  except  within  the  walls  of  the  Forbidden  City. 
But  neither  were  her  male  predecessors  at  Peking 
absolute  despots  outside  the  palaces.  The  Chinese 
theory  of  Imperial  rule  did  not  allow  the  unrestrained 
tyranny  of  the  Son  of  Heaven  over  his  subjects. 
Only  his  fellow- Manchus  called  themselves  "  slaves  " 
of  the  Emperor,  and  even  their  slavery  was  of  an 
honorary  kind.  The  Emperor  of  China  is  in  many 
ways  as  much  of  a  figurehead  as  any  constitutional 
monarch.  His  influence  over  the  destinies  of  his 
country  is  exercised  chiefly  through  the  power  which 
he  has  of  choosing  his  advisers.  But  even  here  it 
seems  difficult  for  him  to  prevent  a  great  man  from 
rising,  by  sheer  force  of  merit,  to  the  highest  offices, 
including  what  is  equivalent  to  a  place  in  the  Cabinet. 
The  chief  obstacle  which  Tze-hi  found  to  the 

117 


ii8    GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

satisfactory  enjoyment  of  her  position  was  that  occa- 
sioned by  her  sex.  The  stringent  laws  of  etiquette 
which  hedged  her  about  were  not  lightly  to  be 
broken,  and  she  was  too  thoroughly  a  woman  of 
China  to  try  to  flout  the  rules  of  feminine  propriety 
which  had  been  established  by  immemorial  antiquity. 
She  recognized  that  what  there  was  to  be  done  to 
emancipate  herself  from  unwelcome  trammels  must 
be  done  gradually.  It  is  not  until  1898,  after  the 
failure  of  the  Reform  movement,  that  we  find  her 
overcoming  the  ban  against  face-to-face  interviews 
with  her  ministers  in  the  throne-room  of  the  Palace  ; 
and  not  until  another  four  years  that  she  takes  the 
bold  step  of  receiving  the  representatives  of  the 
Western  barbarians  into  her  august  presence. 

If  she  had  to  wait  years,  however,  before  she  could 
get  free  from  some  irritating  restrictions  upon  the 
visible  exercise  of  her  authority,  the  Empress  Dowager 
soon  made  it  clear  that  she  intended  to  prove  the 
reality  of  that  authority.  She  must  have  decided  to 
dispense  with  Prince  Kung  long  before  the  issue  of 
her  decree  dismissing  him  from  office.  For  the 
offence  which  she  made  a  pretext  for  her  action  was 
small  indeed  in  comparison  with  the  quarter  of  a 
century  of  faithful  services  which  he  had  rendered  to 
throne  and  country — if  indeed  the  Prince  was  in  any 
degree  to  blame,  which  is  not  certain. 

During  the  Emperor  Tungchih's  brief  majority, 
France  had  established  a  footing  in  the  Annamese 
province  of  Tongking,  on  China's  South  -  eastern 


TZE-HI    SOLE   REGENT  119 

frontier.  As  has  been  said  earlier,  this  boded  ill  for 
peace,  owing  to  the  fact  that  Tongking  was  a  favourite 
refuge  of  outlaws  endeavouring  to  escape  from  justice 
at  the  hands  of  the  Chinese  provincial  officials. 
Remnants  of  the  old  Taipings  had  made  their  way 
across  Yunnan  and  Kwangsi  and,  joined  by  other 
desperadoes,  formed  themselves  into  wandering  bands, 
the  most  celebrated  of  whom  were  those  known  as 
the  "  Black  Flags."  The  Chinese  officials  in  their 
warfare  against  these  bands  sent  regular  troops  over 
the  frontier  and  kept  small  garrisons  in  some  of  the 
towns  north  of  the  Red  River.  This  state  of  affairs 
continued  after  the  Franco-Annamese  Convention  of 
1874  gave  France  a  virtual  protectorate  over  Tong- 
king. As  France's  Colonial  ambitions  grew  stronger, 
however,  she  determined  to  make  her  protectorate 
effective.  This  brought  her  at  once  into  conflict  with 
China.  In  the  first  place,  having  serious  trouble  with 
the  Black  Flags,  she  accused  the  Chinese  provincial 
officials  of  subsidizing  them — a  charge  for  which 
there  was  no  basis,  the  officials  and  the  outlaws  being 
at  deadly  enmity.  Then,  having  resolved  on  a  military 
occupation  of  Tongking,  and  having  forced  the  new 
King  of  Annam,  after  a  temporary  seizure  of  his 
capital  in  the  summer  of  1883,  to  sanction  her  pro- 
ceedings, she  spread  her  troops  Northward  toward  the 
Chinese  frontier.  The  Chinese  Government  gave 
warning  that  if  the  garrisons  at  Sontai  and  Bacninh 
were  molested,  the  Chinese  Minister  would  be  with- 
drawn from  Paris.  Nevertheless,  the  French  attacked 


120   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

both  towns  and  drove  out  the  garrisons.  The  Chinese 
Minister  was  withdrawn,  although  no  declaration  of 
war  followed. 

As  soon  as  the  news  reached  the  ears  of  the 
Empress  Dowager,  she  issued  a  strongly  worded  decree 
in  which  she  stripped  Prince  Kung  of  all  his  offices, 
dismissed  several  other  ministers,  and  punished  all 
the  military  officers  connected  with  the  Tongking 
disasters.  It  was  alleged  that  Prince  Kung  had 
neglected  to  inform  Her  Majesty  at  once  of  the 
French  attack  on  Bacninh.  But  the  hollowness  of 
the  pretext  was  apparent.  Prince  Kung,  as  usual, 
stepped  down  silently  from  his  high  posts.  He  lived 
another  fourteen  years,  but,  although  he  did  not 
entirely  disappear  from  view — the  Emperor  Kwanghsu 
on  his  accession  is  said  to  have  urged  him  to  come 
forward  again,  and  we  shall  see  him  figuring  as  a 
member  of  the  Tsungli  Yamen  as  late  as  1898 — his 
voice  was  never  again  great  in  the  councils  of  State. 

Prince  Kung  must  always  be  somewhat  of  an 
enigma  to  the  historian.  Although  on  two  notable 
occasions — in  1865  and  1874 — degraded  for  undue 
assertion  of  his  power,  he  appeared  to  the  outer 
world  the  reverse  of  self-assertive.  By  his  vigorous 
action  on  the  death  of  his  brother  Hienfung  he  made 
it  possible  for  his  two  sisters-in-law  to  take  the  lead- 
ing place  in  the  Empire.  Yet  he  seemed  content 
(apart  from  the  affair  of  1865)  to  serve  under  them 
rather  than  rule  with  them,  limiting  himself  to  the 
direction  of  foreign  affairs,  of  which  he  had  an  un- 


TZE-HI    SOLE   REGENT  121 

rivalled  knowledge.  When  his  nephew  Tungchih 
died,  he  might  have  had  reasonable  expectation  of 
seeing  his  son  Tsaiching  on  the  throne,  but  acquiesced 
in  the  choice  of  his  younger  brother's  son  as  Emperor, 
retaining  merely  his  old  posts.  Finally  he  vanished 
into  private  life  without  a  protest  in  1884.  Yet 
compulsory  retirement  was  the  worst  fate  which  could 
have  befallen  him,  had  his  son  been  chosen  Emperor 
instead  of  Kwanghsu  nine  years  earlier.  He  cannot 
have  been  devoid  of  ambition,  although  but  for  the 
censure  upon  him  in  the  two  decrees  of  his  sisters- 
in-law  in  1865  and  of  his  nephew  in  1874,  we  should 
have  no  proof  of  high  claims  on  his  part.  Perhaps 
the  post  which  he  coveted  was  that  of  the  power 
behind  the  throne  ;  and  this  he  held  for  twenty-three 
years,  with  an  occasional  reminder  from  those  on  the 
throne  that  he  must  keep  well  behind  it.  What  then 
induced  him  in  1884  to  resign  all  his  pretensions  and 
abandon  public  life  ?  Was  he  convinced  at  last  of 
the  futility  of  striving  against  his  imperious  sister-in- 
law  when  she  had  made  up  her  mind  to  get  rid  of 
him  ? 

Although  we  cannot  know  all  the  circumstances  of 
the  case,  it  seems  impossible  to  acquit  the  Empress 
Dowager  Tze-hi  of  ingratitude  toward  Prince  Kung, 
the  man  who  made  her  if  any  man  can  be  said  to 
have  done  so.  Yet  even  her  bitterest  critics  allow 
that  one  of  her  best  points  was  her  loyalty  to  her 
friends.  It  has  been  suggested  that  the  real  cause  of 
Kung's  overthrow  was  the  ambition  of  his  brother 


122    GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 
i 

Chun,  between  whom  and  the  Dowager  there  was  a 
strong  bond  of  sympathy  after  his  marriage  with  her 
sister.  It  should  be  noted  that  in  one  of  her  last 
public  acts  in  March,  1889,  a  rescript  to  a  memorial 
recommending  the  bestowal  of  some  extraordinary 
distinction  on  Prince  Chun  when  his  son  assumed  the 
administration  of  affairs,  the  Empress  Dowager,  while 
rejecting  the  suggestion,  praised  the  Prince  for  his 
devotion  to  the  public  service,  his  modesty  and 
absence  of  personal  ambition.  Fifteen  years  ago,  she 
said,  in  the  first  year  of  Kwanghsu,  he  had  written  a 
memorial  deprecating  the  very  course  now  recom- 
mended, while  he  had  persistently  declined  to  ride  in 
the  magnificent  apricot-yellow  palanquin  provided  for 
him,  thus  showing  the  simplicity  and  humility  of  his 
mind  and  his  desire  to  be  considered  the  servant  of 
the  State  rather  than  the  father  of  the  sovereign. 

Nevertheless,  the  general  impression  was  that  the 
Prince  was  ambitious.  Certainly  when  Kung  stood 
down  Chun  stepped  up,  and  for  the  seven  years 
preceding  his  death  in  1891  wielded  much  of  the 
power  which  had  formerly  been  his  elder  brother's. 
He  did  not  take  the  presidency  of  the  Grand 
Council  nor  that  of  the  Tsungli  Yamen,  which  fell  to 
Yikwang,  Prince  of  Ching,  a  descendant  of  the 
Emperor  Kienlung,  a  prince  who  subsequently  made 
himself  highly  esteemed  by  foreigners.  Nevertheless 
Chun  began  to  exercise  very  real  political  influence, 
while  he  increased  the  number  of  the  administrative 
duties  which  he  performed.  Already  Commander  of 


TZE-HI    SOLE    REGENT  123 

the  Peking  Field  Force,  when  an  Admiralty  Board 
was  formed  in  1886  he  was  made  its  President.  Not 
only  did  he  take  pains  to  make  himself  acquainted 
with  the  work  entrusted  to  him,  but  having  occasion 
to  visit  Tientsin,  Chefoo,  and  Port  Arthur  in  his 
official  capacity,  he  returned  to  Peking  with  a  much 
enlightened  mind,  abandoning  his  opposition  to  rail- 
way construction  and  himself  introducing  electric 
lighting  into  the  capital  and  into  his  own  palace. 

Western  opinion  was  always  far  less  favourable  to 
Prince  Chun  than  to  his  brother  Kung.  At  first  he 
was  looked  on  as  a  mere  nonentity  of  rather  unpleas- 
ing  exterior.1  Then  at  the  time  of  the  Tientsin 
massacre  he  was  discovered  to  be  strongly  anti- 
foreign.  He  was  declared  to  be  a  reactionary  and  a 
Jingo.  Gradually  the  fact  of  his  ability  forced  itself 
upon  foreigners,  and  when  he  died  he  was  recognized 
as  having  been  a  genuine  force  in  China,  and  a  force, 
moreover,  by  no  means  altogether  for  ill.  It  was 
necessary  to  have  recourse  to  the  explanation  that 
contact  with  the  outer  world  had  converted  him  to 
Liberalism.  It  is  certainly  remarkable  to  find  a  prince 

1  See  an  unflattering  description  of  him  and  Prince  Kung  in 
Parker's  CAina,  Past  and  Present,  pp.  131-2  :  "All  the  Princes  of 
the  Imperial  family  have  a  strong  family  likeness.  .  .  .  The  chief 
points  are  a  heavy  sensual  mouth,  with  just  a  suspicion  of  'under- 
hangedness '  about  the  lower  lip,  and  a  decided  scowl.  Otherwise  the 
faces  are  not  ill-looking,  though  the  expression  is  imperially  vicious." 
In  John  Chinaman,  p.  260,  Professor  Parker  speaks  of  "  the  poetical 
Prince  Chun,"  however.  The  reference  must  be  to  a  "  Poetical  Essay 
on  a  Voyage  by  Sea,"  which  the  Prince  wrote  after  his  visit  to  the 
ports  mentioned  above. 


124   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

who  suffered  under  the  reputation  of  being  a  bigoted 
Conservative,  not  only  recognizing  the  advantages  of 
railways  and  electric  light,  but  also  bringing  about,  as 
Chun  did,  the  introduction  of  certain  branches  of 
Western  learning  into  the  old  Chinese  curriculum  for 
the  training  of  officials. 

Prince  Chun's  emergence  into  public  life  was  in 
itself  an  exhibition  of  a  power  to  rise  superior  to 
tradition,  though  in  the  circumstances  a  natural  con- 
sequence of  the  Prince's  ambition — if  we  may  venture 
to  dispute  the  Dowager  Empress's  view  of  his 
character.  When  his  son  was  selected  as  Emperor, 
the  father's  career  was  looked  upon  as  over  almost 
before  it  had  begun.  But  after  Kwanghsu's  minority 
had  lasted  but  five  years  Prince  Chun  was  seen  taking 
up  the  command  of  the  Peking  Field  Force  ;  and 
four  years  later  he  threw  off  all  pretence  of  abstain- 
ing from  the  conduct  of  affairs.  The  fact  of  his  son's 
adoption  by  the  Empress  Dowager  may  have  made  it 
easier  for  him  to  disregard  old  custom.  Yet  the 
question  was  seriously  discussed  again,  as  we  shall  see, 
when  Kwanghsu  came  of  age,  whether  Chun  could  in 
propriety  hold  office  under  his  son.  To  the  extreme 
traditionalists  this  was  one  of  the  grave  offences  of 
the  new  reign,  and,  like  the  choice  of  Kwanghsu  as 
Emperor  though  he  was  in  the  wrong  generation  for 
succession  to  the  throne,  was  bound  to  bring  down 
on  China  the  wrath  of  Heaven. 

Foreign  residents  were  inclined  to  think,  when 
Chun  supplanted  Kung,  that  the  war  party  had 


TZE-HI    SOLE   REGENT  125 

triumphed  at  Peking,  and  that  a  definite  declaration 
of  hostilities  against  France  would  follow.  Nothing 
of  the  kind  happened.  But  it  is  necessary  here  to 
go  back  a  few  months  to  explain  the  condition  of 
affairs. 

After  the  fall  of  Bacninh,  an  attempt  had  been 
made  to  arrange  matters  amicably,  and  a  French 
officer  had  been  sent  to  Tientsin  to  meet  Viceroy  Li 
Hung-chang,  the  inevitable  representative  of  China 
in  a  tight  corner.  Li  and  the  French  Captain 
Fournier  in  May  drew  up  a  convention,  which  is 
known  by  their  names.  Herein  China  agreed  to 
withdraw  her  remaining  garrisons  from  Tongking  and 
to  recognize  France's  treaties  with  Annam.  Unhap- 
pily a  dispute  arose  as  soon  as  the  convention  came 
to  be  interpreted.  The  Chinese  alleged  that  Fournier 
illegally  altered  with  his  own  hand  the  date  for  their 
evacuation  of  Tongking.  So  when  on  June  2ist  the 
French  appeared  with  a  small  force  before  Langson 
and  called  on  the  garrison  to  go,  they  were  met  by  a 
refusal,  a  fight  followed,  and  the  French  were  defeated. 
At  once  a  demand  was  made  for  an  apology  from 
Peking  and  the  payment  of  ;£  10,000.  China  refusing 
this  monstrous  indemnity,  a  state  of  war  began  on 
the  Tongking  frontier,  but  still  without  any  official 
declaration  on  the  part  of  either  France  or  China. 
So  far  from  Peking  manifesting  a  Jingo  spirit,  con- 
sequent upon  the  rise  of  Prince  Chun,  no  orders  were 
issued  for  hostile  preparations  against  France.  The 
Empress  Dowager  and  her  advisers  seem  to  have 


126   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

been  genuinely  surprised  that  the  Western  Barbarians 
did  not,  as  often  before,  restrict  operations  to  the 
locality  where  the  trouble  arose. 

So  when  Admiral  Courbet,  who  was  in  command 
of  the  French  forces  in  the  Far  East,  after  declaring 
a  blockade  of  Formosa  sailed  up  the  Min  River  to 
Pagoda  Anchorage,  ten  miles  below  the  treaty 
port  of  Foochow,  he  found  no  preparations  to  resist 
him.  A  fleet  of  about  a  dozen  Chinese  wooden  war 
vessels  lay  at  the  Anchorage.  Courbet,  who  had  nine 
warships  under  him,  on  August  23rd  demanded  the 
surrender  of  the  Chinese  fleet  and  the  forts  along  the 
Min  River.  The  Chinese  not  complying,  Courbet 
opened  fire,  sank  nine  of  their  vessels  (which  were 
even  less  of  a  match  for  the  French  than  the  Spaniards 
in  Manila  Bay  were  for  Admiral  Dewey's  squadron), 
and  reduced  the  principal  fort  at  the  Anchorage  to 
ruins.  On  the  following  days  he  sank  twelve  more 
ships  in  the  river,  and  wrecked  four  more  forts.  He 
then  sailed  back  to  Formosa,  leaving  about  three 
thousand  Chinese  dead  behind  him. 

This  affair,  called  by  Pierre  Loti  "  the  crowning 
glory  of  Foochow,"  did  not  appeal  to  the  taste  of  all 
foreigners  in  China.  One  of  them1  describes  the 
results  of  France's  victory  with  considerable  candour. 
"  The  bodies  of  the  dead  floated  out  to  sea  on  the 
tide,  many  of  them  being  borne  back  on  the  return- 

1  The  missionary  George  B.  Smyth,  President  of  the  Foochow 
Anglo-Chinese  College,  in  the  North  American  Review,  quoted  in 
A.  H.  Smith's  China  in  Convulsion,  pp.  24-5. 


TZE-HI    SOLE    REGENT  127 

ing  current,  and  for  days  it  was  hardly  possible  to 
cross  the  river  anywhere  between  the  Anchorage  and 
the  sea,  twenty  miles  below,  without  seeing  some  of 
these  dreadful  reminders  of  French  treachery  and 
brutality."  Such  being  a  Westerner's  opinion  of  the 
matter,  it  is  not  surprising  that  the  impression  in 
China  was  very  bad.  It  is  rather  to  be  wondered  at 
that  no  reprisals  against  foreigners  followed.  But 
still  no  declaration  of  war  was  made,  and  the  fighting 
area  remained  restricted.  Courbet  did  little  in  For- 
mosa, and  in  Tongking  the  smallness  of  the  French 
forces  and  the  fusion  of  the  Black  Flag  guerillas  with 
the  Chinese  regulars  led  to  a  protracted  struggle,  with 
but  little  advantage  to  the  European  Power. 

At  length  the  foreign  merchants  in  China,  disgusted 
at  the  damage  done  to  their  trade  by  the  Franco- 
Chinese  quarrel,  succeeded  in  making  their  complaints 
heard.  While  the  irregular  warfare  continued  in 
Tongking,  France  and  China  were  brought  together 
through  the  mediation  of  Sir  Robert  Hart,  the  Irish 
head  of  the  Chinese  Imperial  Maritime  Customs,  and 
in  the  June  of  1885  Li  Hung-chang  and  the  repre- 
sentative of  France  signed  the  Li-Patenotre  Conven- 
tion, which  secured  Tongking  to  France  with  an 
indemnity  of  ;£  160,000  to  cover  all  claims,  while 
Annam  was  in  future  to  have  no  political  relations 
with  the  outer  world  save  through  her  new  suzerain. 

The  damage  done  to  M.  Ferry's  Government  in 
France  by  the  Tongking  adventure  is  a  matter  of 
European  history.  In  China,  although  Li  Hung- 


iz8   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

chang  had  really  gained  a  great  diplomatic  victory 
when  he  made  such  terms  with  the  determinedly 
aggressive  French,  there  was  a  strong  outcry  over 
the  national  disgrace.  Memorials  poured  in  upon 
the  Throne  demanding  his  impeachment  as  a  traitor. 
But  the  Empress  Dowager  stood  firm.  Li  was  not 
impeached,  but,  on  the  contrary,  was  retained  in  his 
offices  and  treated  with  still  greater  confidence.  He 
even  succeeded  in  rescuing  from  punishment  one 
of  his  clients,  Chang  Pei-lung,  the  man  in  charge 
of  the  defences  of  Foochow  when  Admiral  Courbet 
sailed  up  the  Min.  Chang  not  only  allowed  the 
foreign  squadron  to  ascend  the  river  quite  unmolested, 
but  had  the  impudence  after  "  the  crowning  glory 
of  Foochow"  to  send  news  to  Peking  of  a  Chinese 
success.  For  this  he  was  justly  dismissed  from  his 
post  and  condemned  to  banishment  beyond  the  Great 
Wall  of  China.  Through  Li's  intervention,  however, 
he  was  recalled,  and  in  1888  we  find  him  accepted  by 
his  patron  as  a  son-in-law,  and  holding  official  rank 
once  more — to  be  accused  of  peculation  in  1894.  It 
is  unfortunate  that  the  great  Viceroy  was  prone 
to  use  his  influence  on  behalf  of  worthless  characters, 
and  that  the  Empress  Dowager,  while  rightly  de- 
clining to  sacrifice  him  to  his  enemies,  allowed  him  to 
foist  upon  his  country  men  who  deserved  very  ill 
of  it. 

During  the  Empress's  sole  regency  China  ex- 
perienced, roughly  contemporaneous  with  the  troubles 
over  Annam  in  the  South,  other  troubles  over  Korea 


TZE-HI    SOLE   REGENT  129 

in  the  North-east.  Already  both  Russia  and  Japan 
had  their  eyes  upon  the  "Land  of  the  Morning 
Calm."  But  while  Russia's  designs  were  temporarily 
checked  by  Great  Britain's  seizure  of  Port  Hamilton 
and  refusal  to  evacuate  it  until  China,  Korea's  legal 
suzerain,  had  given  a  guarantee  that  no  other  Power 
should  be  allowed  to  occupy  it,  China  herself  proved 
strong  enough  at  this  epoch  to  keep  Japan  at  bay. 
This  measure  of  success  was  due  to  her  resident 
at  the  Korean  capital,  the  since  famous  Yuan  Shi-kai. 
Yuan — a  client  of  Li  Hung-chang,  but,  unlike  Chang 
Pei-lung,  in  every  way  deserving  of  his  patron's 
favour — by  a  combination  of  energy  and  of  wily 
diplomacy,  forestalled  the  Japanese  intention  of 
occupying  Seoul  and  kidnapped  the  Korean  King's 
father,  the  intriguing  and  anti-foreign  ex-regent  of 
the  country,  whom  he  packed  off  to  China  as  a 
hostage  for  the  King's  good  behaviour.  China's 
position  in  Korea  was  now  secured  for  some  time 
to  come,  and  Yuan  Shi-kai  was  on  the  road  to  be- 
coming one  of  the  great  men  of  his  nation. 

Thus  when  the  period  of  Kwanghsu's  majority 
was  drawing  to  a  close,  China  found  herself  in  a 
better  position  than  had  been  hers  for  many  years — 
perhaps  better  than  at  any  time  since  the  first  foreign 
war.  Having  made  peace  with  the  outer  world  with- 
out the  usual  humiliating  concessions,  comparatively 
free  from  internal  rebellions,  and  guided  by  the  coun- 
sels of  some  men  of  real  ability,  who  recognized  the 
necessity  of  building  up  their  motherland's  defensive 


130   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

powers  if  her  forced  entry  into  the  "  sisterhood  of 
nations  "  was  not  to  prove  fatal  to  her,  China  seemed 
likely  to  pass  into  Kwanghsu's  hands  a  far  less 
troublesome  heritage  than  she  had  been  to  his  three 
immediate  predecessors  on  the  throne.  The  only 
disquieting  symptom  was  a  series  of  anti-missionary 
riots  occurring  over  the  country  from  1883  onwards. 
However,  the  movement  did  not  assume  alarming 
proportions  until  after  Kwanghsu's  accession,  and  we 
may,  therefore,  leave  the  subject  to  be  dealt  with  later. 
For  the  generally  favourable  state  of  affairs  a  con- 
siderable portion  of  the  credit  cannot  be  denied  to 
the  Empress  Regent,  who  used  the  position  at  the 
head  of  the  Government  which  her  nephew's  youth 
had  given  her  to  discover  men  competent  to  steer 
the  ship  of  State  along  the  exceedingly  difficult  course 
which  circumstances  prescribed  for  it.  If  she  had  got 
rid,  in  the  person  of  Prince  Kung,  of  a  statesman 
who  commended  himself  to  foreign  taste,  it  must  be 
admitted  that  those  who  came  to  the  front  with  her 
assistance  previous  to  the  year  1887,  notably  Prince 
Chun,  Li  Hung-chang,  and  Yuan  Shi-kai,  all  of  them 
compelled  the  respect,  if  not  all  of  them  the  liking  of 
foreign  critics.  And  to  the  list  of  those  who  laid  the 
foundations  of  their  fortunes  during  the  Regency 
must  be  added  the  names  of  the  two  Viceroys  Chang 
Chih-tung  and  Liu  Kun-yi,  to  both  of  whom,  for 
their  sagacity  and  strength  of  character,  foreigners 
had  every  reason  to  be  grateful  before  the  nineteenth 
century  came  to  an  end. 


CHAPTER   X 

THE   EMPRESS   IN   RETIREMENT 

T7~WANGHSU  should  legally  have  come  of  age  in 
February,  1887,  and  ascended  the  throne  on  the 
following  Chinese  New  Year  ;  and  there  was  no 
reason  publicly  known  why  precedent  should  not 
have  been  followed.  However,  although  the  Em- 
press Dowager  announced  that  her  nephew  and 
adopted  son  was  now  qualified  to  take  over  the  reins 
of  government,  Kwanghsu  responded — or  was  made 
to  respond — with  an  extraordinary  decree,  in  which 
he  confessed  his  inability  to  rule  alone.  "  When 
I  heard  the  edict,"  he  said,  "  I  trembled  as  though  I 
were  in  mid-ocean,  not  knowing  where  the  land  is. 
But  Her  Imperial  Majesty  will  continue  to  advise 
me  for  a  few  years  more  in  important  affairs  of  State. 
I  shall  not  dare  to  be  indolent,  and  in  obedience  to 
the  Empress's  command  I  have  made  petitions  to 
Heaven,  Earth,  and  Ancestors  that  I  may  assume 
the  administration  of  the  Empire  in  person  on  the 
fifteenth  day  of  the  first  moon  in  the  thirteenth  year 
of  my  reign.  Under  the  guidance  of  Her  Imperial 
Majesty,  care  will  be  devoted  to  everything." 

What  was  there  behind  the  decree  thus  attributed 
to  Kwanghsu  ?     It  was  a  defiance  of  all  past  history 


1 32    GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

that  the  Emperor  should  continue  to  subordinate 
himself  to  anyone,  however  august,  after  attaining 
his  majority.  Could  the  Empress  Dowager  have 
dared  to  violate  precedent  so  grossly  in  order  to 
gratify  her  ambition  to  rule  a  little  longer,  or  was 
there  anything  which  incapacitated  her  nephew  at  the 
proper  time  for  his  accession  ? 

Kwanghsu  was  assuredly  the  most  extraordinary 
character  in  the  huge  Manchu  Imperial  family,  far 
from  ordinary  as  were  many  of  his  kinsmen.  If  his 
uncle  Kung  has  rightly  been  called  by  us  somewhat 
of  an  enigma,  Kwanghsu  was  more  enigmatic  still. 
Suffering  from  ill-health  in  early  childhood,  he  always 
remained  delicate  and  sickly.  Foreigners  who  saw 
him  at  various  periods  in  his  life  were  always  im- 
pressed by  the  pallor  of  his  skin  and  his  timid, 
shrinking  air.  His  youthful  appearance  continued 
into  middle  life  ;  for  at  thirty-eight  he  is  said  to  have 
looked  only  sixteen.  His  figure  was  elegant  and 
slight,  his  head  large,  with  the  frontal  portion  well 
developed  (though  retreating  toward  the  crown)  ;  his 
face  an  elongated  oval,  with  a  very  narrow  and  pro- 
jecting lower  jaw  ;  his  eyes,  under  high  arched  brows, 
large  and  mournful,  while  full  of  intelligence  ;  his 
lips  thin  and  sensitive,  always  parted  and  slightly 
twisted  up  to  the  left.  His  dress  was  extremely 
simple  whenever  State  ceremonial  did  not  cause  it 
to  be  otherwise.  The  restraint  and  dignity  of  his 
bearing  in  public  were  always  noticeable.  Yet  it  was 
rumoured  that  he  was  capable  of  violent  anger  in 


THE   EMPEROR   KWANGHSU 


THE   EMPRESS    IN   RETIREMENT     133 

private ;  that  as  a  child  he  would  throw  himself 
upon  the  floor  and  scream  if  his  desires  were 
thwarted  ;  and  that  in  later  life  he  occasionally  broke 
everything  within  reach,  and  more  than  once  was  guilty 
of  kicking  off  his  slipper  at  his  principal  wife,  with 
whom  he  got  on  but  ill.  With  regard  to  women  in 
general,  it  was  said  that  their  society  had  little  attrac- 
tion for  him,  however  good-looking  they  might  be. 
Some  have  gone  so  far  as  to  call  him  a  perfect  type  of 
a  degenerate. 

Whatever  his  personal  share  in  drawing  up  that 
astonishing  Reform  Programme  which  must  always 
make  his  reign  memorable,  Kwanghsu  decidedly  had 
a  great  aptitude  for  the  assimilation  of  new  ideas. 
Unlike  his  aunt,  he  did  not  devote  himself  especially 
to  making  a  name  for  himself  in  Chinese  scholarship. 
Foreign  ideas  seemed  to  exert  a  fascination  over  him. 
European  and  American  toys  pleased  him  most  in 
childhood,  and  all  kinds  of  mechanical  appliances 
from  the  same  countries  as  he  grew  up.  As  soon  as 
he  began  to  live  his  own  life  he  showed  how  his  tastes 
lay.  He  collected  watches  and  clocks,  which  he 
could  take  to  pieces  and  put  together  again,  inter- 
ested himself  in  musical-boxes  and  phonographs  and 
the  more  serious  telephonic  and  telegraphic  ap- 
paratuses, made  attempts  to  play  the  piano  and  ride 
a  bicycle,  bought  a  miniature  railway-engine  and 
carriages  for  the  Forbidden  City,  and  placed  steam- 
launches  on  the  Lotus  Lake.  He  read  all  the  transla- 
tions which  he  could  get  from  European  tongues,  and, 


134   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

as  we  shall  see  later,  took  up  the  study  of  English 
eagerly.  Of  all  his  nation,  Chinese  and  Manchu,  he 
seems  to  have  been  the  nearest  approach  to  a  pro- 
foreigner.  Indeed,  could  we  feel  quite  certain  about 
Kwanghsu,  we  might  call  him  the  only  pro-foreigner 
whom  China  has  produced.  We  may  be  confident, 
at  any  rate,  in  calling  him  an  enthusiast  and  a 
visionary. 

Such  as  he  was,  he  was  brought  up  in  a  palace  full 
of  women  and  eunuchs,  under  the  watchful  eye  of  his 
aunts.  At  first  he  was  mainly  under  the  care  of  the 
Eastern  Empress.  But  after  Tze-an's  death  he  was 
entirely  in  the  hands  of  Tze-hi  and  those  whom  she 
appointed.  It  does  not  seem  likely  that  she  encouraged 
him  in  his  foreign  leanings,  but  it  is  more  than  likely 
that  she  did  encourage  him  to  dream,  for  thereby  she 
must  have  seen  her  chances  increased  of  acting.  She 
endeavoured  to  imbue  him  with  a  profound  respect 
for  herself,  and,  if  we  judge  only  by  his  public  utter- 
ances and  conduct,  she  succeeded  admirably.  Privately 
his  feelings  toward  her  may  have  become  in  time  as 
unfriendly  as  his  partisans  and  her  enemies  represented 
them  to  be.  But  it  must  be  remembered  that  there 
is  nothing  to  prove  this,  even  after  the  affair  of  1898. 
The  Emperor  kept  his  own  counsel. 

On  reaching  his  seventeenth  year  (according  to 
Chinese  notions)  Kwanghsu  might  have  been  ex- 
pected, had  his  strength  of  character  been  as  great 
as  his  power  of  dreaming,  to  welcome  the  oppor- 
tunity of  exchanging  theory  for  practice  and  of 


THE  MARQUIS  TSENG,   FIRST  CHINESE  MINSTER  IN  LONDON 
(From  a  caricature  by  the  late  Alfred  Bryan) 


136   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

governing  his  Empire  in  harmony  with  his  ideas. 
Being  of  timid  disposition  and  delicate  constitution, 
however,  he  may  really  have  taken  a  first  view  of  his 
task  such  as  the  edict  in  his  name  expressed.  He 
had  not  yet  found  the  man  to  set  him  on  fire  with 
the  craving  to  pull  down  and  build  anew,  and  his 
private  tutor,  Weng  Tung-ho,  although  afterwards 
appearing  as  a  moderately  progressive  politician, 
seems  rather  to  have  been  led  on  by  his  pupil  than 
to  have  led  him  in  the  direction  of  new  ideas.  A 
favourite  friend  of  the  Emperor,  the  "  Marquis " 
Tseng,  son  of  Tseng  Kwo-fan  and  first  Chinese 
Minister  in  London,  unfortunately  died  in  1890,  too 
early  to  take  part  in  the  full  development  of  the 
young  Emperor's  character  ;  and  his  race,  Chinese 
not  Manchu,  prevented  him  from  having  much 
opportunity  for  wielding  his  influence  effectively  in 
the  Palace. 

Tze-hi  was  not  the  woman  to  shirk  the  further 
period  of  rule  which  her  nephew's  diffidence  offered 
her.  She  graciously  consented  to  step  back  into  the 
position  which  she  had  just  declared  her  intention  of 
vacating,  and  for  two  years  more  Kwanghsu  remained 
under  the  shadow  of  her  power. 

Normally  Kwanghsu  would  have  married  a  wife  in 
1887,  as  well  as  taken  his  place  on  the  throne.  His 
marriage,  however,  was  delayed  like  his  accession. 
The  Empress  Dowager  did  not  intend  that  her 
nephew  should  follow  in  the  steps  of  her  son  and 
take  to  himself  a  wife  in  whom  she  had  not  herself 


THE   EMPRESS    IN   RETIREMENT     137 

complete  confidence.  At  the  same  time  she  saw  the 
advantage  of  forging  another  link  between  the  Im- 
perial family  and  her  own.  Of  her  brothers  Kwei, 
or  Kweisiang,  Deputy  Lieutenant-General  of  one  of 
the  Manchu  Banners,  was  the  one  she  loved  best, 
and  his  daughters  were  all  great  favourites  of  hers. 
The  eldest  of  them,  named  like  herself  originally 
Yehonala,  was  a  docile,  retiring  girl,  rather  sickly  and 
not  remarkable  for  her  looks.  On  her  Tze-hi 
fixed  as  the  most  suitable  first  wife  of  the  Emperor, 
to  whom  she  was  three  years  senior.  It  mattered  not 
if  Kwanghsu  had  already  bestowed  his  affections  on 
another,  as  it  is  said  that  he  had.  At  the  customary 
exhibition  of  Manchu  maidens,  which  took  place  in 
early  November,  1888,  he  was  compelled  to  select 
Yehonala  the  younger  as  his  consort. 

An  edict  from  the  Dowager  Empress  then  appeared 
in  the  Peking  Gazette^  in  which  she  said  : — 

"  Since  the  Emperor  reverently  entered  upon  the 
succession  to  his  patrimony  he  has  been  daily  grow- 
ing up  to  manhood,  and  it  is  right  that  a  person  of 
high  character  should  be  selected  to  be  his  consort 
and  to  assist  him  in  the  duties  of  the  Palace,  to  the 
end  that  the  exalted  position  of  Empress  may  be 
fittingly  fitted  and  the  Emperor  supported  in  the 
practice  of  virtue.  The  choice  having  fallen  upon 
Yehonala,  the  daughter  of  Deputy  Lieutenant- 
General  Kweisiang,  a  maiden  of  virtuous  character 
and  becoming  and  dignified  demeanour,  we  com- 
mand that  she  be  appointed  Empress." 


138    GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

Kwanghsu  was  permitted  to  take  as  his  first  and 
second  concubines  the  maiden  of  his  personal  choice 
and  her  sister,  daughters  of  a  Vice-President  of  one 
of  the  Peking  Boards.  Yehonala  herself,  according 
to  Court  gossip,  failed  to  please  her  husband,  while 
her  cousinship  to  him  was  a  cause  of  offence  to  the 
superstitious,  who  looked  on  a  fire  which  injured  one 
of  the  gates  of  the  Imperial  Palace  in  January  as  a 
sign  of  the  wrath  of  Heaven  against  the  marriage. 
She  did  not,  however,  disappoint  her  aunt.  Con- 
tented to  remain  a  nonentity,  she  exercised  no  in- 
fluence whatever  on  affairs,  and  when  she  saw  her 
husband  deposed  she  continued  to  be  an  unassuming 
dependent  on  the  masterful  woman  who  had  given 
her  a  post  of  so  much  dignity  and  so  little  power.1 

After  the  choice  of  the  bride  had  been  made,  the 
Board  of  Rites  was  called  upon  to  draw  up  the  pro- 
gramme of  ceremonies  in  connection  with  the 

1  Miss  Katharine  Carl,  the  American  artist,  painter  of  Tze-hi's 
portrait  for  the  St.  Louis  Exposition  and  author  of  the  book  With  the 
Empress  Dowager  of  China,  gives  an  attractive  sketch  of  the  young 
Empress,  however.  She  says  :  "  She  is  small,  not  quite  five  feet 
tall,  with  exquisitely  dainty  hands  and  feet,  of  most  patrician  type. 
She  has  a  narrow,  high-bred  face,  with  a  thin,  high  nose.  Her  eyes 
are  more  of  the  Chinese  type,  as  we  conceive  it,  than  either  the 
Emperor's  or  the  Empress  Dowager's.  Her  chin  is  long  and  of  the 
type  generally  called  strong.  Her  mouth  is  large  and  extremely 
sensitive.  Her  eyes  have  so  kindly  a  look,  her  face  shines  with  so 
sweet  an  expression,  criticism  is  disarmed,  and  she  seems  beautiful. 
She  has  a  sweet  dignity,  charming  manners,  and  a  lovable  nature ;  but 
there  is  sometimes  in  her  eyes  a  look  of  patient  resignation  that  is 
almost  pathetic.  I  should  not  say  she  possessed  any  great  executive 
ability,  though  full  of  tact." 


THE   EMPRESS    IN   RETIREMENT     139 

marriage,  to  be  revised  by  the  Empress  Dowager. 
Although  they  had  the  models  of  antiquity  to  imi- 
tate, the  Board  were  unfortunate  enough  to  offend 
Her  Majesty  by  a  slip  with  regard  to  the  day  on 
which  a  certain  prayer  must  be  offered  up  to  Heaven, 
and  were  consequently  all  degraded,  as  a  lesson  in 
respect  for  tradition.  The  mistake  having  been  cor- 
rected, she  signified  her  approval,  and  on  December  4th 
the  formal  betrothal  took  place. 

It  has  been  pointed  out1  that  the  Chinese  Emperor 
in  taking  a  wife  follows  the  lines  of  procedure  laid 
down  for  all  his  subjects.  First  the  go-between — in 
Kwanghsu's  case,  the  Empress  Dowager — arranges 
the  marriage.  Then  comes  the  betrothal.  Next  the 
bridegroom  sends  his  presents  to  the  bride,  which 
in  this  instance  included  a  gold  tablet,  enclosed  in 
a  gold  and  jewelled  casket,  on  which  was  inscribed  the 
Dowager's  consent  to  the  union.  On  the  day  selected 
for  the  actual  wedding  the  bridal  chair  is  sent  to  fetch 
the  lady  from  her  father's  to  her  husband's  home, 
the  pair  meet  face  to  face  and  pledge  one  another, 
and  then  both  kneel  down  together  to  worship 
Heaven,  Earth,  and  Ancestors,  and  inform  them  of 
the  marriage.  Finally,  a  day  or  two  later,  the  hus- 
band takes  his  wife  to  visit  his  parents,  even  if  he  is 
living  in  their  house,  which  is  usually  the  case  in 
China. 

1  By  Mr.  W.  H.  Wilkinson,  in  the  course  of  a  very  interesting 
account  of  the  Emperor  Kwanghsu's  marriage  in  the  Asiatic  Quarterly 
Review,  1889. 


140   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

The  ceremony  of  sending  the  wedding  presents 
is  particularly  gorgeous  where  an  Emperor  and 
Empress  are  concerned.  Kwanghsu  went  himself 
in  state  to  view  them  before  they  were  despatched 
in  the  Dragon  Car  to  Kweisiang's  house,  and  then 
listened  while  a  herald  read  aloud  to  him  the  Empress 
Dowager's  edict  already  quoted,  everyone  present 
except  himself  reverently  kneeling.  The  gold  tablet, 
the  seal  and  sceptre  made  for  the  new  Empress,  the 
bridal  crown,  veil  of  pearls,  and  silken  robes 
embroidered  with  phoenixes,  and  all  the  other 
presents  having  been  put  in  the  car,  the  procession 
conveyed  them  to  the  bride,  escorted  by  Imperial 
princes. 

The  Emperor  was  called  upon  to  listen  to  the 
reading  of  the  edict  sanctioning  his  marriage  again, 
when  on  the  day  following  the  despatch  of  the 
presents  he  paid  an  early  morning  visit  of  homage 
to  Her  Majesty  Tze-hi,  prostrating  himself  nine 
times  before  her  in  the  throne-room,  she  alone  being 
seated.  Only  when  she  had  withdrawn  did  he  take 
her  place  and  hold  a  reception  of  princes  and  nobles, 
before  whom  the  edict  was  solemnly  recited. 

Yehonala  was  brought  to  the  Palace  on  the  lucky 
day  chosen  by  the  Astronomical  Board,  February 
25th,  coming  in  the  dusk  and  through  streets  all 
shuttered  and  barred  so  that  no  profane  eyes  might 
gaze  on  the  bride  of  the  Son  of  Heaven,  an  object 
of  such  awe  to  all  except  his  adoptive  mother.  The 
closed  sedan-chair,  carried  by  sixteen  bearers  and 


THE   EMPRESS    IN    RETIREMENT     141 

escorted  by  a  magnificent  procession  of  princes  on 
horseback,  reached  the  Imperial  Palace,  its  arrival 
being  announced  by  a  herald  with  the  words  :  "  The 
Phoenix  Car  is  come ! "  whereon  there  broke  out 
a  tremendous  welcome  of  trumpets,  drums,  cymbals, 
bells,  and  gongs,  in  that  confusion  of  sound  so  dear 
to  the  Chinese  ear  on  festive  occasions.  The  chair 
was  taken  through  the  Palace  into  the  Throne-room, 
the  escort  retired,  and  eunuchs  handed  out  the  bride 
and  led  her  to  her  throne.  As  the  herald  announced, 
"  The  auspicious  moment  dawns,  all  is  ready  for  the 
happy  union,"  the  Emperor,  with  a  retinue  of 
eunuchs,  entered  the  room  clad  in  dragon- 
embroidered  robes,  and  the  pair  were  permitted 
to  look  upon  one  another  face  to  face,  perhaps  for 
the  first  time.  Kneeling  attendants  poured  out  for 
them  wine  from  a  golden  flagon  into  jewelled  cups, 
and  they  pledged  one  another  solemnly,  amid  the 
fumes  of  burning  incense  and  to  the  sound  of  joyful 
music  from  bands  without. 

Having  brought  about  the  marriage  which  was 
considered  to  prove  her  adopted  son's  attainment  of 
manhood  and  with  it  his  competence  to  rule,  the 
Empress  Dowager  issued  her  edict  of  farewell  to 
the  nation,  handing  over  the  administration  of  the 
Empire  to  His  Majesty  Kwanghsu  on  March  4th, 
1889. 

And  now  at  last  Tze-hi,  at  the  age  of  fifty-four, 
ostensibly  withdrew  herself  from  public  affairs  and 
retired  to  the  palace  which  the  Emperor  solicitously 


142    GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

assigned  to  her  as  "  a  haven  of  rest  after  her  eighteen 
wearisome  years  of  regency."    Elaborate  preparations 
had  been  going  on  at  this  palace  for  some  time  past 
to  fit  it  for  her  comfort,  but  had  been  stopped  for 
a    time  at  the   Empress's  desire   when    the    before- 
mentioned  fire  broke  out  in  Peking.     She  requested 
the  cessation  of  all  work  except  on  a  Buddhist  temple 
in   the  palace  -  grounds,  saying  that  the  fire  was  an 
admonition  from  Heaven,  and   that    she  wished    to 
economize  in  her  own  luxuries  for  the  benefit  of  the 
nation  and  to  reconcile  herself  with  the  divine  power. 
Acknowledging  Kwanghsu's  decree  of  the  "  haven 
of  rest"  for  her,  Tze-hi  in  admirable  language  replied 
that  now  that  His    Majesty  had   reached  manhood 
"  the  highest  respect  which  He  can  pay  to  Us  will  be 
to  discipline  His  own  body,  to  develop  His  mind, 
to  pay  unceasing  attention  to  the  Government,  and  to 
love  His  people."     With  that  she  took  up  her  resi- 
dence at  the    Iho    Park,  which  lay  within  the  vast 
enclosure  known  as  the  Wan  Shou  Shan  (Mount  of 
Ten  Thousand  Ages).    A  dozen  or  more  miles  North- 
west of  Peking,  the  Wan  Shou  Shan  is  approached 
from  the  gates  of  the  Tartar  quarter  of  Peking  by  a 
stone-paved  road  which,  being  for  Imperial    use,  is 
better  than  most  Chinese  highways,  and  runs  through 
scenery  made  beautiful,   in  the  season,  by  fields  of 
wheat  and  maize.     Within  the  enclosure  were   many 
buildings,   including    the    old    Summer    Palace,   the 
"  Round  Bright  Garden,"  wrecked  by  the  Allies  in 
1860.     The   Iho  Park  section,  where   the  Dowager 


THE   EMPRESS    IN   RETIREMENT     143 

was  henceforward  to  dwell  until  she  decided  to  inter- 
fere openly  in  public  affairs  again,  was  a  fine  palace 
with  most  magnificent  undulating  grounds  attached 
to  it,  temples  and  pavilions  being  dotted  about  on 
every  hill.  Here  she  was  able  to  devote  herself  to 
the  cultivation  of  flowers,  always  a  favourite  hobby 
of  hers,  as  might  be  guessed  from  her  fondness  of 
painting  them,  even  if  we  did  not  know  from  the 
accounts  of  the  various  foreign  ladies  acquainted  with 
her  in  later  life  how  much  their  beauty  appealed  to 
her.  Within  the  grounds  lay  a  large  lake,  across 
which  ran  a  seventeen-arched  white  marble  bridge 
leading  to  an  island  surmounted  by  marble  terraces, 
yellow-tiled  pavilions,  rocky  grottoes,  and  lovely 
gardens.  The  Southern  shore  of  the  lake  was  fringed 
all  its  length  by  a  balustraded  marble  embankment. 
On  this  fine  piece  of  water,  which  was  entered  from 
the  Imperial  Canal  under  a  curious  "camel-backed" 
bridge,  also  of  white  marble,  Tze-hi  was  able  to 
indulge  another  of  her  passions,  for  boating.  Sub- 
sequently she  introduced  steam-launches  upon  the 
lake  ;  but  at  this  time  its  waters  were  disturbed  by 
nothing  more  than  an  Imperial  barge,  towed  by  others 
filled  with  oarsmen,  all  compelled  by  etiquette  to 
stand  at  their  labours,  and  followed  by  boatloads  of 
eunuchs  in  charge  of  the  tea-making  apparatus  and 
other  necessities  of  Her  Majesty's  existence. 

Horticulture  and  boating  are  said  to  have  been  her 
two  main  diversions  in  the  Iho  Park.  But  she  had 
other  occupations  also  to  compensate  her  for  the  loss 


i44  GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

of  the  excitements  of  Peking.  Architecture  pleased 
her  as  much  as  it  pleased  an  European  Empress 
whom  Tze-hi  resembled  in  many  of  her  tastes — 
Josephine,  wife  of  Napoleon.  In  the  Wan  Shou 
Shan  grounds  she  had  scope  both  for  the  erection  of 
new  buildings  and  the  restoration  of  old.  She  tried 
her  hand  at  repairing  some  of  the  damage  done  by 
the  Anglo-French  invaders  of  1860.  Foreign  critics 
have  said  that  her  restorations  were  rather  tasteless. 
Their  countrymen,  actuated  (may  we  suppose  ?)  by 
disgust  at  this,  visited  the  neighbourhood  in  1900 
and  did  much  damage.  Unfortunately  they  did  not 
content  themselves  with  attacking  the  restored  por- 
tions or  even  with  looting  the  Dowager's  buildings  ; 
for  the  wonderful  Temple  of  the  Five  Hundred 
Buddhas,  on  the  crest  of  the  hill,  was  now  sadly  injured 
by  fire,  after  escaping  unscathed  forty  years  earlier. 

With  her  various  hobbies  and  her  taste  for  litera- 
ture, painting,  and  the  drama — as  the  child  Yehonala 
had  loved  puppet-shows  in  the  streets  of  Peking,  it 
was  said,  so  the  Empress  was  an  enthusiastic  patron 
of  the  theatre  and  kept  her  own  troupes  to  play 
before  her  wherever  she  went — Tze-hi  had  abundant 
means  of  occupying  her  leisure.  But  her  enemies  of 
Chinese  race  attributed  to  her  indulgence  in  far  less 
reputable  distractions.  The  subject  will  be  dealt  with 
in  a  later  chapter  and  need  only  be  briefly  mentioned 
here.  Her  accusers  made  her  out  to  be  an  utter 
profligate,  and  asserted  that  the  eunuchs  of  her  Court 
were  so  only  in  name.  The  Empress  Dowager  had 


THE   EMPRESS    IN    RETIREMENT     145 

made  the  mistake,  after  the  first  severe  treatment 
which  she  had  meted  out  to  some  of  them  at  the 
beginning  of  her  joint  regency  with  Tze-an,  of  allow- 
ing these  persons  to  assume  too  prominent  a  position 
in  her  household  ;  and  in  consequence  she  laid  her- 
self open  to  the  slander  of  malicious  tongues.  It  is 
true  that  the  foreigner  who  saw  most  of  them  at  the 
Dowager's  Court,  the  American  artist  Miss  Katharine 
Carl,  speaks  well  of  them  and  found  "  accomplished 
literati"  among  them.  But  Li  Lien-ying,  the  head 
eunuch  (whom  the  same  foreign  observer  describes  as 
a  tall,  thin,  Savonarola-like  personage  with  elegant 
manners,  a  pleasant  voice,  and  an  appearance  of 
ability),  was  utterly  detested  by  the  Chinese  for  his 
greed  and  abuse  of  authority,  and  the  obstinacy  with 
which  his  Imperial  mistress  disregarded  all  complaints 
against  him  caused  them  to  aver  that  he  had  been 
introduced  into  the  Palace  under  false  pretences  and 
was  in  reality  her  lover.  It  was  certainly  an  error  of 
judgment  on  the  part  of  the  Empress  Dowager  to 
bestow  so  much  of  her  favour  on  "  Cobbler's:wax 
Li,"  as  the  Pekingese  nicknamed  him  in  allusion  to 
the  fact  that  he  had  been  born  a  shoemaker's  son. 

From  her  Palace  on  the  "  Mount  of  Ten  Thousand 
Ages  "  the  retired  Regent  could  see  the  yellow-tiled 
roofs  of  the  Forbidden  City,  so  clear  is  the  air  in 
this  part  of  China  when  not  obscured  by  dust-storms 
from  the  desert.  But  not  only  could  she  see  the 
roofs  with  her  eyes  ;  also,  by  means  of  the  number- 
less adherents  which  a  wily  woman  like  herself  knew 
L 


146   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

so  well  how  to  secure,  she  could  watch  all  that  went 
on  under  those  roofs.  For  nine  years  she  gave  no 
sign  of  any  intention  of  returning  to  her  former 
position  ;  she  looked  on  passively,  it  was  almost 
thought  benevolently,  while  the  man  whom  she  had 
put  on  the  throne  planned  a  most  astounding  revolu- 
tion in  the  Government  which  he  had  taken  over 
from  her  hands.  Then  suddenly  we  see  her,  in  the 
course  of  a  few  hours,  and  without  any  shedding  of 
blood  in  the  process,  re-establish  herself  in  the  For- 
bidden City  and  resume  her  regency  of  the  Empire. 
It  is  evident  that  in  her  sojourn  at  the  Iho  Palace  she 
wasted  no  time  and  never  lost  her  grip  over  affairs. 

It  must  be  added  that,  while  retiring  from  Peking, 
the  Empress  Dowager  appears  to  have  kept  the  Great 
Seal,  possibly  for  another  eight  years  ;  and  that  she 
certainly  retained  the  right  of  examining  State  docu- 
ments and  of  appointing  and  cashiering  officials  of 
the  two  highest  ranks,  both  of  which  privileges  gave 
her  a  considerable  voice  in  Chinese  policy,  and  put  a 
check  upon  the  Emperor's  freedom. 


THE   EMPRESS   DOWAGER   TZE-HI,   WITH   HER   NIECE  YEHONALA  (ON   THE 
EXTREME   RIGHT)  AND  OTHER   COURT   LADIES 


p.  146 


CHAPTER   XI 

FIRST  YEARS  OF  KWANGHSU— TZE-HI'S  JUBILEE 

/^\N  February  25th  Kwanghsu  began  his  actual 
reign.  The  moment  had  been  eagerly  awaited 
by  foreigners  ;  since  with  an  Emperor  on  the  throne 
the  Audience  question,  in  abeyance  after  the  death  of 
Tungchih,  arose  once  more.  The  Empress  Dowager 
and  her  advisers  have  been  credited  with  having  this 
difficulty  in  mind  when  Kwanghsu's  accession  was 
delayed,  but  that  hardly  seems  a  sufficient  explanation 
of  so  startling  a  step.  However,  when  the  new 
Emperor  was  in  his  place,  the  Tsungli  Yamen  showed 
itself  very  evasive  and  dilatory  in  discussing  the 
matter  with  the  Western  representatives  at  Peking. 
At  length,  in  the  closing  month  of  1890,  the 
Emperor  issued  an  edict  in  which  he  stated  that 
he  would  receive  the  ministers  of  the  Powers  in  the 
following  Chinese  New  Year,  and  that  thereafter  he 
would  do  so  in  the  first  month  of  each  succeeding 
year.  Foreigners  were  pleased  by  the  tone  of  the 
edict,  which  was  decidedly  friendly.  It  is  noticeable, 
however,  that  Kwanghsu  adhered  to  the  manner  of 
procedure  observed  under  Tungchih,  and  that  the 
audience  still  took  place  in  the  "  Pavilion  of  Purple 
Light,"  outside  the  Palace.  Consequently,  after  the 
reception  on  March  5th,  1891,  dissatisfaction  was 

147 


148   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

expressed,  and  representations  were  made  to  the 
Tsungli  Yamen.  The  usual  procrastination  followed; 
but  finally  China  gave  way,  and  in  the  November  of 
1894,  a  hundred  and  one  years  after  Macartney's 
interview  with  Kienlung,  the  Chinese  Emperor 
admitted  the  Western  nations'  ministers  to  his  pre- 
sence in  a  proper  hall  of  audience  within  the  Palace. 

On  January  ist,  1891,  before  his  first  foreign  re- 
ception, Kwanghsu  lost  his  father,  who  thus  did  not 
long  survive  the  disappearance  from  active  politics  of 
the  sister-in-law  who  had  given  scope  to  his  ambitions. 
On  his  son's  accession,  Prince  Chun  was  expected  by 
upholders  of  old  tradition  to  retire  from  the  posts  of 
which  his  tenure,  even  during  the  years  of  Kwanghsu's 
minority,  had  been  looked  on  as  a  violation  of  pro- 
priety. But  the  Prince  had  no  intention  of  giving 
up  his  offices,  and  preferred  to  violate  tradition  by 
serving  under  his  son  rather  than  condemn  himself 
to  the  obscurity  of  private  life.  Having  a  strong 
will,  he  prevailed.  It  is  questionable,  however, 
whether  he  wielded  the  influence  after  1889  which 
the  Empress  Regent  had  allowed  him  to  wield  before. 
There  were  rumours  of  divergence  of  opinion  between 
him  and  Kwanghsu.  The  Prince,  although  he  had 
turned  out  very  different  from  what  foreigners  had 
expected  him  to  be,  and  had  shown  himself  genuinely 
receptive  of  new  ideas,  was  not  prepared  to  travel  at 
the  pace  desired  by  his  son. 

With  Chun's  death  his  brother  Kung  became  a 
little  more  prominent  again,  being,  it  seems,  a 


FIRST   YEARS    OF    KWANGHSU       149 

favourite  with  his  nephew.  But  Kwanghsu  was  pre- 
paring to  try  his  wings  alone,  without  aid  from  any 
members  of  his  family. 

Perhaps  it  was  partly  due  to  the  removal  of  his 
father  that  the  Emperor  was  able  to  follow  up  his 
edict  of  December,  1890,  with  another  next  June 
which  was  welcomed  by  the  foreigners.  His  Majesty 
pointed  out  that  existing  treaties  provided  for  the 
propagation  of  Christianity  in  China,  and  that  the 
protection  of  missionaries  by  the  provincial  officials 
had  been  enjoined  by  various  Imperial  decrees.  "The 
doctrines  of  the  Western  religion,"  he  continued, 
"  have  for  their  purpose  the  teaching  of  men  to  be 
good,  and  although  Our  people  become  converts  they 
do  not  cease  to  be  subjects  of  China,  and  are  amen- 
able to  the  local  authorities.  There  is  no  reason  why 
peace  and  quiet  should  not  prevail  between  the  people 
and  the  adherents  of  the  foreign  religion."  But 
villains,  "not  a  few  in  number,  and  to  be  found 
everywhere,"  had  been  reckless  in  fabricating  stories 
against  the  Christians  in  order  to  create  trouble.  The 
local  authorities  were  therefore  again  commanded  to 
protect  foreigners,  and  were  threatened  with  degrada- 
tion from  office  if  they  should  be  negligent. 

This  decree  was  inspired  by  the  series  of  attacks 
on  foreigners  commencing  in  1883,  spreading  over 
the  country,  particularly  in  the  Yangtse  Valley,  and 
culminating  in  the  riots  at  Wuhu  in  May,  and  at 
Wusueh  in  June,  1891  ;  the  latter  being  a  par- 
ticularly bad  case,  involving  the  brutal  murder  of  a 


150   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

missionary  and  a  Customs  official,  both  Englishmen. 
The  charges  against  foreigners  in  nearly  all  these 
outrages  were  the  familiar  ones  of  kidnapping 
children,  turning  bodies  into  medicine,  subverting 
morals,  and  so  on.  In  some  instances  official  com- 
plicity in  the  disturbances  was  proved  ;  in  others  it 
was  strongly  suspected.  An  explanation  of,  though 
not  an  excuse  for,  this  official  attitude  can  be  found  in 
the  dislike  of  the  mandarins  for  the  clause  in  the 
Tientsin  Treaty  permitting  the  travel  and  residence 
of  foreigners  in  the  interior,  and  in  their  disgust  at 
the  manner  in  which  their  traditional  "squeezes"  had 
been  cut  down  both  by  the  growth  of  the  foreign-con- 
trolled Imperial  Maritime  Customs  and  by  the 
necessity  of  contributing  to  the  upkeep  of  an  Army 
and  a  Navy  on  modern  lines.  Moreover,  the  re- 
actionary party  at  Peking  had  concentrated  its  forces 
against  the  men  set  up  by  the  Empress  Regent  and 
the  still  more  progressive  government  instituted  by 
the  Emperor,  and  was  giving  encouragement  to  the 
anti-foreign  officials. 

With  Western  historians  of  China  it  is  a  common- 
place that  riots  against  foreigners  (whether  mission- 
aries or  others)  are  made  to  order  from  Peking. 
They  habitually  quote  in  support  of  their  charge  the 
old  Chinese  proverb  :  When  the  wind  blows,  the 
grass  bends.  The  justice  of  such  a  contention  con- 
cerning the  riots  from  1883  onward  depends  on  what 
is  meant  by  "  made  to  order  from  Peking."  If  by 
Peking  it  is  intended  to  convey  the  Central  Govern- 


FIRST   YEARS    OF    KWANGHSU       151 

ment  as  a  whole,  or  the  leading  personages  in  that 
Government,  then  the  contention  cannot  stand.  Per- 
haps those  who  look  on  the  Empress  Dowager  as 
bigotedly  anti-foreign  throughout  her  career  may  be 
able  to  imagine  her  inspiring  attacks  on  foreign 
missionaries,  merchants,  and  travellers  in  Kwang- 
tung,  Shantung,  Szechuan,  and  the  Yangtse  Valley, 
while  employing  statesmen  of  liberal  tendencies  in 
her  administration  as  a  cloak  for  her  designs.  But 
the  facts  are  against  such  a  theory.  When  the 
Dowager  allowed  herself  to  be  led  into  a  violent 
campaign  against  the  foreigners  she  threw  herself 
into  the  arms  of  men  like  Prince  Tuan,  Tung 
Fu-hsiang,  and  Yuhien,  upsetting  the  balance  of 
power  which  she  had  previously  maintained  between 
the  forces  of  progress  and  reaction.  Except  during 
this  brief  period  of  madness  when  the  nineteenth 
century  was  giving  place  to  the  twentieth,  Tze-hi 
was  scarcely  more  an  enemy  of  foreigners  than  every 
patriotic  man  or  woman  of  China  is  bound  to  be. 
And,  in  any  case,  how  low  a  view  of  her  statecraft  it 
is  which  makes  her  put  in  control  of  affairs  men 
whose  policy  it  was  to  build  up  a  China  strong 
enough  to  defend  herself  against  the  aggressions  of 
the  outer  nations,  while  at  the  same  time  she  stirred  up 
troubles  which  might  prematurely  plunge  the  country 
in  a  struggle  in  which  it  was  bound  to  suffer  heavily. 
If,  however,  it  be  said  that  the  influence  at  Peking 
which  gave  encouragement  to  the  provincial  organ- 
izers of  attacks  on  foreigners  was  that  of  highly 


152   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

placed  people  of  reactionary  views,  more  than  usually 
ignorant  members  of  the  Imperial  clan,  Bannermen 
of  the  old-fashioned  type,  and  narrow-minded  Chinese 
literati  eager  to  upset  the  plans  of  their  more  en- 
lightened fellow-countrymen,  then  we  may  readily 
believe  that  many,  if  not  most,  of  the  disturbances  in 
various  parts  of  China  during  the  sole  regency  of 
Tze-hi  and  the  opening  years  of  Kwanghsu's  reign 
were  made  to  order  from  Peking.  The  provincial 
authorities,  with  their  various  grievances  against  the 
foreigners  who  lessened  their  gains  and  increased 
their  work,  wanted  but  little  suggestion  from  above 
to  take  part  in  a  persecution  of  the  troublesome 
intruders  ;  while  at  the  same  time  the  forces  beneath, 
the  "  villains  not  few  in  number  and  to  be  found 
everywhere,"  as  Kwanghsu  called  them,  were  con- 
stantly driving  the  magistrates  on,  terrorizing  them 
with  threats  and  even  putting  them  to  death  if  they 
resisted,  along  the  road  which  led  to  the  mission- 
buildings  and  the  houses  of  consuls  and  other 
residents  from  abroad.  So  came  about  the  wrecking 
of  chapels,  incendiarism,  violent  assaults,  tortures, 
and  murders — and  then  indemnities,  apologies,  and 
cashiering  of  officials,  and  a  fresh  crop  of  hatred 
against  the  "  foreign  devils." 

Such  was  the  state  of  affairs,  reaching  its  worst 
crisis  so  far  in  1891,  which  Kwanghsu  tried  to 
remedy  by  his  proclamation  in  the  June  of  that 
year.  The  stamp  of  sincerity  was  on  that  decree, 
but  unhappily  the  best  decrees  of  the  Emperors  of 


FIRST   YEARS    OF    KWANGHSU        153 

China  are  often  those  which  command  the  least 
obedience.  "The  mountains  are  high,"  say  the 
Chinese,  "the  Emperor  is  far  away."  A  brief  lull 
in  the  persecution  was  followed  in  1895  by  an 
extremely  violent  outburst  in  Szechuan  in  the  remote 
West,  and  a  smaller  but  more  murderous  riot  in 
Fuhkien  in  the  South-east.  In  both  cases  it  was  the 
missionaries  who  were  the  objects  of  the  attack  ;  but 
it  was  claimed,  by  the  missionaries  themselves  chiefly, 
that  it  was  as  foreigners  that  they  were  assailed, 
owing  to  the  irritation  throughout  China  at  the  news 
that  the  soil  of  the  Celestial  Empire  had  been  invaded 
by  an  army  from  abroad — by  the  Japanese,  in  fact,  in 
the  autumn  of  1894. 

This  year  1894  witnessed  several  remarkable 
events.  There  was  the  war  between  China  and 
Japan,  the  final  settlement  of  the  foreign  Audience 
question,  and  the  Jubilee  of  the  Empress  Dowager. 
The  war,  with  its  tremendous  consequences  for 
China,  may  be  left  for  the  present,  although  the 
outbreak  of  hostilities  preceded  both  the  celebration 
of  the  Jubilee  and  the  reception  of  the  foreign 
ministers. 

The  Imperial  audience  of  November  I2th,  the  cul- 
minating triumph  of  over  a  century  of  Western 
diplomatic  efforts,  was  not  an  unsolicited  act  of  grace 
on  the  part  of  China.  The  representatives  of  the 
Powers  notified  the  Tsungli  Yamen  that  they  had 
letters  of  congratulation  for  the  Emperor  on  the 
event  in  his  "august  mother's"  life.  It  was  hardly 


154   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

possible,  without  the  gravest  discourtesy,  to  refuse  to 
receive  these  letters,  which  must,  of  course,  be  pre- 
sented personally,  within  the  Palace.  Accordingly, 
China  being  embarrassed  and  the  foreigners  firm,  the 
usual  fight  was  omitted  and  an  invitation  was  issued 
for  November  I2th,  within  the  "Inner  Palace"  or 
Forbidden  City.  The  hall  appointed  was  the  Wen 
Hua  Tien,  somewhat  quaintly  translated  into  English 
as  the  "  Hall  of  Blooming  Literature,"  where  the 
Emperors  of  China  are  wont  to  listen  to  the  exposi- 
tion of  the  writings  of  Confucius  by  learned  members 
of  the  Hanlin  Academy.  It  was  not  as  imposing 
a  building  as  those  in  which  foreign  ministers  had 
hitherto  been  received,  but  it  had  the  all-important 
virtue  of  being  in  the  Forbidden  City.  Decorated 
for  the  occasion  with  rose  silk  hangings  relieved  with 
yellow  cords,  it  was  found  to  contain  no  furniture 
except  the  Emperor's  Dragon  Throne,  with  a  small 
yellow  satin-covered  table  in  front  of  it,  and  behind  it 
a  large  silk  curtain  embroidered  with  peacock's 
feathers — which  concealed  no  less  a  person  than  the 
Empress  Dowager  herself,  invisible  to  foreign  eyes, 
but  able  to  hear  all  that  went  on.  Raised  on  a  dais 
above  a  throng  of  all  the  Presidents  and  Vice-Presi- 
dents of  the  Peking  Boards  and  the  high  officials  of 
the  capital,  the  Emperor  sat  cross-legged,  clad  in  a 
sable  robe  and  wearing  the  hat  of  State,  with  the 
leading  Imperial  Princes  standing  on  either  hand,  of 
whom  Princes  Kung  and  Ching  acted  as  masters  of 
ceremonies. 


FIRST   YEARS   OF    KWANGHSU       155 

The  foreign  ministers  being  introduced  in  the 
manner  hitherto  prescribed,  their  doyen,  the  repre- 
sentative of  the  United  States,  spoke  a  few  words  of 
congratulation  on  the  occasion  and  presented  his 
letter.  Interpretation,  first  into  Chinese,  then  into 
Manchu,  followed.  Each  minister  in  turn  followed 
the  doyen's  example,  on  each  occasion  one  of  the  two 
senior  Princes  giving  a  Manchu  translation  of  the 
letter  and  laying  it  on  the  yellow-covered  table, 
whereon  the  Emperor  bowed  and  spoke  a  few  words 
of  Manchu,  which  were  translated  first  into  Chinese 
and  then  into  the  language  of  the  particular  country's 
representative.  The  audience  concluded  with  the 
ministers  bowing  themselves  out  of  the  hall. 

And  so  the  notable  first  entry  of  the  representatives 
of  the  West  into  the  jealously  guarded  Forbidden 
City  was  the  consequence  of  an  event  in  the  life  of 
Her  Majesty  Tze-hi,  little  as  was  the  part  which  she 
played  in  the  ceremony. 

It  was  on  the  seventh  day  of  November  that  the 
Empress  attained  her  sixtieth  year  of  life,  according 
to  the  Chinese  mode  of  reckoning.  It  had  been 
arranged  that  she  should  emerge  from  her  retire- 
ment for  a  brief  while  to  take  part  in  the  festivities 
in  connection  with  the  happy  event.  The  Board  of 
Rites  was  set  to  work  by  Kwanghsu  to  discover  the 
proper  ceremonial  to  be  observed  in  honour  of  his 
adoptive  mother.  Fortunately  for  themselves  the 
officials  had  not  to  search  very  far  back  into  past 
history  to  find  a  model.  One  hundred  and  forty- 


156   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

two  years  earlier  the  mother  of  the  reigning  Emperor 
Kienlung  had  attained  her  Jubilee.  It  was  intended 
to  follow  closely  the  example  of  1752,  omitting  one 
remarkable  feature.  Kienlung,  in  the  profundity  of 
his  filial  piety,  had  dressed  himself  up  in  clothes  of  a 
childish  cut  and  frolicked  before  the  eyes  of  his  old 
mother,  in  order  to  give  her  once  more  the  illusion 
of  being  in  her  young  womanhood.  It  was  not  pro- 
posed that  Kwanghsu  should  go  so  far  as  this. 

But  the  misfortunes  of  the  war  with  Japan  caused 
the  programme  to  be  otherwise  curtailed  also.  The 
Empress  Dowager  herself  seems  to  have  expressed  a 
desire  that  no  great  display  should  be  made  in  view 
of  the  calamities  which  were  befalling  the  Empire. 
(It  was  said  by  some  that  she  only  did  so  after  pressure 
had  been  put  upon  her  by  various  people,  including 
Prince  Kung  ;  apparently  they  could  not  admit  that 
she  ever  acted  decently  on  her  own  initiative.) 
The  people  refused  altogether  to  check  their  mani- 
festations of  loyalty,  especially  in  the  provinces. 
But  in  Peking  the  celebrations  were  kept  within 
modest  limits.  The  Ta  Tsing  gate  of  the  Forbidden 
City,  sacred  to  the  use  of  the  Emperors,  was  indeed 
gorgeously  decorated  as  on  the  previous  great  public 
occasion,  the  marriage  of  Kwanghsu.  In  other 
respects  the  occasion  passed  very  quietly,  and  it  was 
announced  that  the  funds  which  would  have  been 
devoted  to  festivities  were  to  be  spent  on  military 
needs.  The  example  was  set  in  a  very  notable  manner 
by  an  act  of  the  Empress  Dowager  herself. 


FIRST   YEARS    OF    KWANGHSU       157 

One  of  the  principal  ways  in  which  it  was  in- 
cumbent on  the  dutiful  Emperor  to  mark  his  pleasure 
at  the  Dowager  reaching  her  sixtieth  year  was  by  the 
bestowal  upon  her  of  a  new  title  of  honour.  In  the 
ordinary  course  of  events,  a  Chinese  Empress  has 
honorifics  granted  to  her  upon  the  birth  of  a  son, 
upon  the  completion  of  ten  years  of  married  life, 
and  upon  various  solemn  occasions,  such  as  the 
attainment  of  the  end  of  a  decade  in  her  existence. 
Such  honorifics  consist  of  two  Chinese  characters, 
and  carry  with  them  an  income  of  ten  thousand  taels 
(at  this  period  worth  between  ^1500  and  £2000)  for 
each  character.  There  was,  therefore,  a  very  grati- 
fying flavour  about  an  honorific,  apart  from  the 
satisfaction  in  its  complimentary  meaning,1  to  a 
woman  who  enjoyed  spending  money  so  much  as  did 
the  Empress  Dowager  Tze-hi  ;  and  in  her  long  life 
she  surpassed  any  of  her  predecessors  in  the  amass- 
ing of  such  pleasing  titles,  sixteen  characters  in  all 
being  bestowed  on  her  before  she  died. 

With  the  new  honorific  and  its  attendant  income 
came  also  gifts  of  great  value,  both  in  money  and  in 
kind,  from  officials  all  over  China,  eager  to  prove 
their  loyal  regard  for  the  ex-Regent,  so  that  her 
birthday  presents  reached  a  stupendous  sum.  But 
Tze-hi  rose  nobly  to  the  occasion.  She  handed  over 
to  the  Government,  to  assist  it  in  the  prosecution  of 
the  war  against  Japan,  the  bulk  of  what  she  had  re- 

1  For  the  translation  of  the  Empress  Dowager's  final  sixteen 
character  title,  see  p.  335. 


158    GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

ceived — no  less  than  ^1,500,000,  it  was  said.  For 
one  so  wealthy  as  she  was,  the  surrender  of  this  sum 
seems  no  doubt  not  a  very  serious  sacrifice.  But 
when  we  compare  with  her  conduct  in  1894  her 
abnegation  on  the  occasion  of  her  seventieth  birthday 
celebrations  also,  we  must  (unless  we  agree  with 
those  who  find  behind  all  good  actions  of  the 
Dowager  the  promptings  of  other  minds)  allow  her 
to  have  been  capable  of  genuine  patriotism,  remark- 
able in  a  woman  of  such  an  appetite  for  money  and 
pleasure,  and  must  set  such  acts  against  the  stories 
current  among  her  enemies  in  Peking  about  the 
diversion  of  public  funds  into  her  pocket.1 

The  war  which  was  the  occasion  of  this  munificent 
gift  from  the  Empress  Dowager  to  her  country  was 
thus  a  serious  check  on  her  enjoyment  of  the  festivi- 
ties and  honours  of  her  sixtieth  year.  All  Chinese 
rulers  are  wont  to  connect  public  misfortunes  with 
their  own  lack  of  merit,  as  we  have  seen  in  the  case 
of  Hienfung  ;  and  Tze-hi,  being  extremely  super- 
stitious, could  not  have  been  expected  to  dissociate 
two  such  events  in  the  same  year  as  her  Jubilee  and 
the  invasion  of  China.  It  is  significant  that  when 
she  approached  the  end  of  another  decade  in  her  life, 
instead  of  observing  her  seventieth  birthday  on  the 
correct  Chinese  date,  November,  1904,  she  held  the 

1  On  one  occasion,  it  was  alleged,  out  of  a  contribution  of  three 
millions  sterling  from  the  Imperial  Treasury  for  naval  purposes,  the 
bulk  found  its  way  into  the  hands  of  the  Empress  Dowager.  She 
used  it  mainly  to  build  a  new  palace ;  and,  in  order  to  "  save  face," 
an  inscription  was  put  up  over  the  gateway  :  "  Admiralty  Office  !  " 


FIRST   YEARS    OF    KWANGHSU       159 

celebration  a  year  earlier — as  if  to  elude  the  wrath  of 
Heaven  or  cheat  the  powers  of  evil  which  were  wait- 
ing to  mar  her  happiness. 

The  actual  declaration  of  hostilities  between  China 
and  Japan  was  made  on  August  ist,  and  the  fighting 
commenced  a  week  before  that.  The  cause  of  the 
quarrel  was,  as  almost  invariably  between  the  two 
countries,  the  question  of  supremacy  in  Korea,  which 
had  brought  them  to  blows  as  early  as  the  end  of  the 
sixteenth  century.  The  unhappy  Land  of  the  Morn- 
ing Calm  had  been  compelled  from  that  time  onward 
to  recognize  two  suzerains,  China  voluntarily,  Japan 
much  against  the  wish  of  all  but  a  few  Koreans  who 
used  Japanese  influence  to  further  their  own  ends. 
We  have  seen  China's  predominance  restored  in  the 
early  eighties.  But  Japan,  though  in  1885  she  agreed 
with  China  to  a  joint  withdrawal  of  forces  from  the 
peninsula,  had  not  ceased  to  intrigue  at  Seoul.  Li 
Hung-chang,  sagacious  as  ever,  fully  foresaw  that  his 
country  would  have  to  fight  for  her  position  in  Korea 
before  many  years  passed,  and  his  expensive  military 
and  naval  preparations  in  his  province  of  Chihli  were 
principally  directed  to  this  end.  Long  before  the  war 
actually  broke  out,  his  son-in-law,  Chang  Pei-lung 
(who  if  a  knave  was  not  a  fool)  presented  a 
memorial  to  the  throne  calling  for  war  against  Japan. 
But  Li,  more  prudent  than  his  son-in-law,  though 
equally  convinced  that  war  must  come,  held  the 
rasher  spirits  of  China  in  check,  while  he  went  on 
with  his  preparations  to  meet  the  crisis  when  it  arose. 


160   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

With  his  great  position  in  the  esteem  of  the  Empress 
Dowager  he  was  able  to  do  this,  in  spite  of  the 
growth  of  new  influences  at  the  Court  of  Peking 
bitterly  opposed  to  the  power  of  the  Li  family.1 

The  immediate  cause  of  the  war  of  1894-5  was  an 
appeal  from  the  King  of  Korea  for  Chinese  help 
against  a  half-religious,  half-political  rising  of  the 
Tong  Hak  or  "  Eastern  Doctrine "  sectarians, 
remotely  resembling  the  Taipings,  against  his 
authority.  China  sent  a  small  force  to  help  her 
vassal,  whose  country  was  in  a  terrible  state  of  faction 
apart  from  the  Tong  Hak  rebellion.  Japan  thereon 
despatched  a  much  larger  force,  following  but  also 
exceeding  the  terms  of  that  provision  of  the  China- 
Japan  Convention  of  1885  which  allowed  either 
country  to  send  troops  into  Korea  when  the  other 
did  so.  In  the  condition  of  affairs,  Japan  eager  for 
war,  China  resigned  to  it,  a  collision  was  certain. 
It  occurred  on  July  25th  between  warships  of  the 
two  countries  off  the  Korean  coast.  It  is  unnecessary 
to  go  into  the  details  of  the  war.  As  is  well  known, 
China's  military  and  naval  reputation  was  utterly 
shattered,  and  at  the  end  the  only  question  was  how 
cheaply  she  could  buy  herself  off.  Naturally, 
recourse  was  had  to  the  offices  of  Li  Hung-chang. 
The  old  Viceroy,  who  had  celebrated  his  seventieth 

1  In  the  autumn  of  1894.  the  anti-Li  party's  domination  over  the 
Emperor  was  so  strong  that  the  Empress  Dowager  thought  it  neces- 
sary to  write  a  letter  to  her  old  friend,  assuring  him  of  her  continued 
confidence, 


FIRST   YEARS    OF    KWANGHSU       161 

birthday  in  1892,  had  fallen  into  disgrace  when  it 
appeared  that  his  vast  expenditure  of  money  on  war- 
materials  of  every  kind  had  been  in  vain.  But  there 
was  no  one  else  with  a  tithe  of  his  experience  in 
treaty-making  ;  and,  moreover,  the  Empress  Dowager 
intervened  to  call  for  his  appointment  as  plenipoten- 
tiary on  behalf  of  China. 

Li  went  to  Japan,  accompanied  by  his  son,  Li 
Ching-fong,  the  present  Chinese  Minister  in  London, 
and  on  April  iyth,  1895,  signed  the  Treaty  of 
Shimonoseki,  recognizing  Korea's  complete  indepen- 
dence of  China,  ceding  to  Japan  Formosa,  the 
Pescadores  group,  and  the  Liaotung  peninsula, 
promising  an  indemnity  of  two  million  taels,  opening 
several  new  ports  to  foreign  trade,  etc.  A  tremendous 
outcry  went  up  in  China — "  the  howling  of  the 
dogs,"  the  brave  old  Viceroy  called  it — and  memorials 
poured  in  upon  the  throne  once  more  denouncing  Li 
as  a  traitor,  as  ten  years  before,  and  calling  for  his 
death.  But  again,  as  after  he  had  made  peace  with 
France  in  1885,  the  Empress  Dowager  came  forward 
to  protect  the  man  whom  she  at  least  recognized  to 
have  saved  China  from  the  full  penalty  which  might 
have  been  inflicted.  Undoubtedly  in  so  doing  the 
Dowager  drew  upon  herself  no  little  share  of  the 
wrath  of  the  Chinese  people  over  the  war. 

Although  China,  however — thanks  to  the  courage 
of  Li  Hung-chang  and  the  steadfast  loyalty  of  the 
Empress  Dowager — escaped  comparatively  lightly  at 
the  hands  of  Japan,  there  was  a  sequel  to  the 

M 


i6z   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

Shimonoseki  Treaty  which,  at  first  appearing  to  better 
China's  position  considerably,  was  soon  to  prove  far 
more  disastrous  to  her  than  ever  the  exactions  of 
Japan.  This  was  the  famous  "  triple  intervention  " 
of  Russia,  France,  and  Germany  to  compel  the  con- 
querors to  forego  a  portion  of  the  spoil.  As  the 
American  writer,  the  Rev.  A.  H.  Smith,  so  admirably 
puts  it :  "For  reasons  known  perhaps  to  the  directors 
of  her  so-called  *  foreign  policy,'  Great  Britain  elected 
to  remain  entirely  neutral."  x  Japan  silently  yielded 
to  the  threat  of  a  war  with  three  European  powers, 
handed  back  to  China  the  Liaotung  peninsula  in 
return  for  an  increase  in  the  idemnity,  and  modified 
her  demands  for  new  treaty-ports.  This  done,  she 
waited  eight  years  for  her  revenge.  Meanwhile, 
China  was  to  experience  the  true  meaning  of  the 
intercession  of  her  European  friends  on  her  behalf. 

1  China  in  Convulsion,  104. 


CHAPTER   XII 

KWANGHSU  THE    REFORMER 

FN  connection  with  the  celebration  of  the  Empress 
Dowager's  Jubilee  in  1894  there  occurred  an 
event,  small  in  itself,  which,  nevertheless,  is  supposed 
to  have  led  indirectly  to  very  important  developments. 
In  honour  of  the  ex-Regent's  birthday,  a  subscription 
was  got  up  among  the  Christian  women-converts  of 
the  various  Protestant  sects  in  China,  some  ten  thou- 
sand in  all,  to  present  a  gift  to  Her  Majesty.  On 
the  suggestion  of  their  teachers,  these  women  decided 
to  give  a  specially  printed  copy  of  a  Chinese  version 
of  the  New  Testament,  in  a  fine  binding  of  solid 
silver.  On  November  nth  the  Ministers  of  Great 
Britain  and  the  United  States  took  the  book,  in  an 
elaborate  casket  which  had  been  made  for  it,  to  the 
Tsungli  Yamen,  with  a  request  that  it  should  be  for- 
warded to  the  Empress  Dowager.  Now  we  do  not 
hear  that  she  took  any  further  notice  of  this  birthday 
present  beyond  sending  back  a  suitable  acknowledg- 
ment, accompanied  by  gifts  to  the  women  missionaries 
who  had  organized  the  subscription.  But  the  Emperor, 
as  soon  as  he  learnt  what  had  happened  at  the  Tsungli 
Yamen,  ordered  copies  of  both  New  and  Old  Testa- 
ments in  Chinese  from  the  American  Bible  Society  at 

163 


164   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

Peking,  and  set  to  work  with  the  Palace  eunuchs  to 
read  them. 

There  is  no  suggestion  that  Kwanghsu  had  any 
intention  of  becoming  a  Christian  himself  or  of  con- 
verting the  eunuchs,  who  by  custom  formed  his  sole 
regular  company,  beside  women,  in  the  Forbidden 
City.  He  merely  received  an  impulse  to  study 
Western  thought  more  closely.  His  passion  for  the 
collection  of  translations  of  European  literature  was 
quickened,  and  he  became  an  omnivorous  and,  it 
would  seem,  undiscriminating  reader  of  all  works, 
on  which  he  could  lay  hands,  which  had  been  rendered 
into  Chinese.  Also,  whereas  he  had  already  commenced 
after  a  fashion  to  learn  English,  he  now  devoted 
more  labour  to  the  task,  and  began  to  speak  at  least 
a  few  words. 

Kwanghsu's  closer  study  of  Western  ideas  was  not 
yet  to  bear  fruit,  for  he  still  lacked  a  guide  of  suffi- 
cient strength  of  character  to  lead  him  along  the 
path  which  attracted  him.  Among  the  Palace  eunuchs, 
though  they  might  include  in  their  ranks  men  of 
literary  ability,  he  was  not  likely  to  discover  a  suitable 
mentor.  Had  the  "  Marquis "  Tseng  survived,  he 
might  have  been  able  to  turn  in  a  safer  direction  the 
enthusiasm  for  which  Kang  Yu-wei  was  soon  to  find 
so  dangerous  an  outlet. 

Before  dealing  with  the  Reform  movement  which 
gave  the  Empress  Dowager  her  pretext  for  emerging 
from  the  retirement  of  Iho  Park  and  taking  upon 
herself  once  more  the  government  of  China,  we  must 


i6S 

stop  to  look  at  the  external  political  consequences  of 
the  "  triple  intervention "  of  Russia,  France,  and 
Germany  in  1896,  so  unfortunate  for  Kwanghsu  when 
he  was  endeavouring  to  introduce  Western  ideas  into 
the  government  and  education  of  his  people.  Nothing 
could  have  done  the  reforming  Emperor  so  ill  a 
service  at  this  time  as  the  exhibition  of  unscrupulous 
greed  on  the  part  of  those  nations  whom  he  was  pro- 
posing for  the  admiration  and  imitation  of  China. 

The  war  between  China  and  Japan  had  been  fol- 
lowed by  a  recrudescence  of  anti-foreign  troubles  in 
various  parts  of  the  former  country,  which  the  hostile 
critics  of  the  Chinese  Government  attributed  to  that 
Government's  own  promptings.  No  serious  punish- 
ment befell  China  until  on  November  ist,  1897,  a 
band  of  about  twenty  men  set  upon  and  murdered 
two  German  Roman  Catholic  missionaries  in  a  West 
Shantung  village.  It  was  never  proved  whether  this 
outrage  was  an  isolated  act  of  outlaws,  an  ordinary 
anti-missionary  affair,  or  again  the  outcome  of  a 
special  agitation  on  the  part  of  a  secret  society  which 
had  arisen  in  the  province  in  the  previous  year.  But 
the  precise  cause  was  immaterial  to  Germany,  who 
was  obviously  prepared  beforehand  to  enforce  her 
claim  to  play  a  leading  part  in  any  division  of  Chinese 
territory.  With  remarkable  speed  her  fleet  was  in 
Kiaochau  Bay,  the  best  harbour  in  Shantung,  if  not 
on  the  whole  coast  of  North  China,  and  celebrated  in 
Chinese  history  as  the  place  whence  the  pious  Bud- 
dhist pilgrim  Fa-hien,  in  414  A.D.,  set  out  on  his 


1 66   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

journey  to  India  in  search  of  copies  of  the  sacred 
scriptures  and  statues  and  relics  of  the  Buddha. 
Tsingtao  Island  was  occupied,  and  an  enormous 
claim  was  presented  to  Peking  by  the  German  repre- 
sentative— a  heavy  indemnity,  drastic  punishment  of 
the  murderers  and  the  local  officials,  removal  of  the 
Governor  of  Shantung,  a  ninety  years'  "  lease "  of 
Kiaochau,  all  coal-mining  rights  in  Shantung,  as  well 
as  other  mining  and  railway  privileges  there. 

The  rest  of  the  world  looked  calmly  on  while 
China,  conscious  of  her  inability  to  fight  and  her 
total  lack  of  friends,  acquiesced  in  the  monstrous 
demand.  No  sooner  had  she  done  so  when  Russia 
stepped  in  with  requisitions  for  a  lease  of  Port 
Arthur  and  Talienwan,  on  similar  terms  to  the 
Kiaochau  lease,  as  well  as  for  permission  to  carry  the 
Transiberian  Railway  through  Manchuria  to  these 
ports. 

There  is  a  Japanese  expression  "  fire-thieves," 
denoting  those  who  take  advantage  of  a  conflagra- 
tion to  steal  property  from  the  burning  houses. 
China's  house  having  been  set  on  fire  by  Japan, 
Germany  and  Russia  (clearly  at  an  understanding, 
seeing  the  promptitude  with  which  they  acted  as  soon 
as  the  occasion  arose)  had  now  very  profitably  taken 
on  the  role  of  fire-thieves.  Two  others  speedily 
made  their  appearance,  Great  Britain  and  France, 
who  demanded  and  obtained  leases  of  Weihaiwei 
and  Kwangchouwan.  Thus,  on  no  other  pretext 
than  that  of  reparation  for  the  murder  of  two  Ger- 


KWANGHSU   THE   REFORMER        167 

man  missionaries  (without  the  slightest  proof  of 
official  complicity),  China  was  bereft  in  a  few  months 
of  four  great  harbours — two  in  Shantung,  one  in 
Manchuria,  and  one  in  Kwangtung.  The  significance 
of  the  "  triple  intervention "  was  clear,  and  Great 
Britain,  though  taking  no  part  in  that  pact,  had  come 
to  share  the  proceeds. 

Nothing  could  have  demonstrated  more  cynically 
the  effect  upon  the  Western  world  produced  by 
Japan's  revelation  of  China's  helplessness.  To  the 
Great  Powers  China  was  a  huge  prey  waiting  to  be 
dismembered.  It  only  remained  for  minor  Powers  to 
put  in  their  claims — as  we  shall  see  that  they  did,  in 
due  course. 

But  we  must  retrace  our  steps  a  short  way.  The 
commencement  of  the  struggle  for  the  partition  of 
China  was  accompanied  by  a  distinct  widening  of  the 
gulf  between  the  Emperor  and  those  left  of  the  old 
advisers  of  China,  who  had  brought  the  Empire  with 
fair  credit  through  its  troubles  at  the  time  of  the  war 
with  Japan,  but  found  it  impossible  to  cope  as  success- 
fully with  the  situation  which  arose  afterwards. 
Kwanghsu,  eager  to  devote  his  attention  to  the, in- 
ternal reform  of  his  country,  was  bent  on  avoiding 
foreign  complications,  but  at  the  same  time  was  not 
prepared  to  sacrifice  China's  dignity  entirely  in  the 
interests  of  peace.  Li  Hung-chang  experienced  the 
force  of  this  when  he  returned  home  after  his  mission 
to  Saint  Petersburg  in  1896  to  represent  his  country 
at  the  coronation  of  the  new  Tsar  Nicholas  II,  which 


1 68   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

was  followed  by  his  famous  trip  round  the  world. 
It  was  seen  with  surprise  that  after  he  had  called  at 
the  Summer  Palace  and  taken  tea  with  the  Empress 
Dowager  he  was  suddenly  denounced  to  the  Board  of 
Punishments,  stripped  of  his  Yellow  Jacket  and  Pea- 
cock's Feather,  and  fined  half  a  year's  salary.  But 
for  the  intervention  of  Tze-hi  he  might  have  suffered 
a  worse  fate.  It  was  not  mere  caprice  on  the  part  of 
Kwanghsu  which  induced  him  to  allow  such  a  blow  to 
be  struck  at  Li  Hung-chang.  The  Cassini  Conven- 
tion, which  was  one  of  the  results  of  the  mission  to 
Saint  Petersburg,  was  too  much  for  those  to  swallow 
who  had  not  arrived  at  the  conception  of  the  "  policy 
of  the  weak."  Li  was  suspected  of  having  sold 
himself  to  Russia.  Had  the  Emperor  been  able  to 
free  himself  completely  from  his  aunt's  control,  the 
old  statesman  and  all  his  adherents  in  the  Tsungli 
Yamen  would  undoubtedly  have  been  swept 
away. 

Failing  earlier  to  carry  matters  as  far  as  he  wished, 
Kwanghsu  seized  upon  the  German  action  at  Kiaochau 
as  his  chance  of  emancipation.  Threatening  to  abdi- 
cate if  he  were  not  put  in  full  possession  of  the 
Imperial  power,  he  found  the  Empress  Dowager 
unprepared  for  such  a  constitutional  crisis.  She  had 
not  yet  in  her  eye,  it  seems,  a  suitable  successor  to 
her  nephew,  which,  indeed,  is  not  strange,  seeing  that 
Kwanghsu  had  himself  produced  no  heir,  and  that  it 
was,  to  say  the  least,  unadvisable  to  risk  a  disputed 
succession.  She  therefore  handed  over  to  Kwanghsu 


LI  HUNG-CHANG 
(From  a  caricature  by  the  late  Alfred  Bryan) 


1 70   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

certain  of  the  privileges  which  she  had  retained  on 
her  retirement,  including,  perhaps,  the  use  of  the 
Great  Seal.  Even  now,  however,  she  seems  to  have 
kept  some  checks  upon  the  Emperor,  though  their 
nature  is  not  clear.  She  seldom  emerged  from  her 
seclusion  to  take  part  in  the  ceremonies  of  Peking. 
A  notable  exception  was  when  Prince  Henry  of 
Prussia,  out  on  the  China  Station  in  his  capacity  of 
Admiral  of  the  German  Fleet,  paid  a  visit  to  Peking, 
and  on  May  ifth,  1898,  was  received  in  audience  by 
both  Emperor  and  Empress  Dowager.  This  was  the 
Dowager's  first  meeting  face  to  face  with  a  "  Western 
barbarian  " — and,  of  course,  a  very  notable  new  de- 
parture in  the  history  of  China. 

Kwanghsu  felt  himself  more  secure  after  his  self- 
assertion  and  his  aunt's  surrender  of  some  of  her 
privileges,  and  very  soon  events  began  to  move 
rapidly. 

There  was  already  in  existence  at  the  time  of  the 
Emperor's  accession  a  strong  body  of  young  men 
who,  partly  or  entirely  educated  on  Western  lines- 
some  in  Government  colleges,  others  in  mission 
schools,  only  a  very  few  as  yet  in  foreign  countries 
— and  imbued  with  an  enthusiasm  for  the  new  ideas 
which  had  been  presented  to  them,  burned  with  a 
desire  to  see  all  their  fellow-countrymen  offered  the 
advantages  which  they  had  received  themselves. 
Japan's  success  in  1894-5,  though  a  deep  humilia- 
tion to  the  defeated  nation,  yet  proved  an  inspiration 


KWANGHSU   THE   REFORMER        171 

to  such  young  men  in  it  and  an  incitement  for  them 
to  call  for  a  Westernization  of  China  on  the  lines 
laid  down  in  Japan.  Had  they  been  wise  enough  to 
follow  the  example  of  the  Japanese  in  one  respect, 
and,  while  innovating,  clung  also  to  the  great  tra- 
ditions of  their  own  country,  instead  of  deriding 
them  as  did  many  of  the  Young  China  party,  it 
would  have  gone  better  with  them  and  their  native 
land  alike.  However,  under  the  influence  of  their 
solicitations,  the  ambitious  crowded  in  increasing 
numbers  to  institutions  which  provided  in  their 
educational  course  the  teaching  of  Western  sciences. 
The  old-fashioned  scholars,  lovers  of  the  sages, 
might  rail  bitterly  at  such  ideas  and  stir  up  the  mob 
to  violence  against  those  who  disseminated  them  ; 
but,  nevertheless,  the  modern  movement  steadily 
went  on.  With  the  energy  of  the  rising  generation 
of  China  behind  it,  it  only  required  leaders  to  become 
a  formidable  power  in  the  State.  Would  the  Emperor 
become  one  of  these  leaders  ? 

The  Emperor  was  more  than  willing  ;  and  at  the 
beginning  of  1898  he  found  the  man  to  introduce 
him  to  the  inner  councils  of  the  Young  China  or 
Reform  Party.  He  had  already  received  a  copy  of 
a  book  on  the  rise  and  development  of  Japan  by 
an  author  whose  name  was  Kang  Yu-wei.  In 
January,  1898,  this  Kang  Yu-wei  asked  for  and 
obtained  an  interview  with  the  Tsungli  Yamen.  He 
talked  with  the  ministers  for  three  hours,  advocating 
China's  imitation  of  Japan,  the  thorough  renovation 


172   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

of  the  judicial  system,1  and  the  replacement  of  China's 
old-fashioned  advisers  by  young  men  trained  on 
Western  lines.  This  was  rather  bold  pleading,  see- 
ing that  none  of  the  Tsungli  Yamen  themselves  had 
received  Western  education.  But  the  Yamen  showed 
an  open  mind  and  asked  Kang  to  present  a  memorial 
bringing  his  ideas  to  the  Emperor's  notice.  Kang 
complied,  and,  having  sent  in  his  memorial,  had  the 
satisfaction  of  being  invited  to  a  special  audience 
with  Kwanghsu.  According  to  the  official  account  in 
the  Peking  Gazette,  one  of  the  Censors  recommended 
Kang  Yu-wei  to  His  Majesty's  notice.  The  credit 
of  first  introducing  him,  however,  has  been  claimed 
by  various  persons,  including  the  Emperor's  tutor, 
Weng  Tung-ho,  one  or  two  other  members  of  the 
Tsungli  Yamen,  and  a  brother  of  the  Emperor's  first 
and  second  concubines,  the  two  sisters  mentioned  in 
an  earlier  chapter. 

Before  receiving  the  advocate  of  reform,  Kwanghsu 
asked  the  Tsungli  Yamen  to  report  upon  his  memorial. 
Prince  Kung  and  other  Manchus  condemned  it.  But 
Kwanghsu  himself  was  instantly  taken  by  the  sugges- 

1  It  is  curious  to  reflect  that  judicial  reform,  which  Kang  Yu-wei 
called  for  in  1898  A.D.,  was  spoken  of  as  necessary  nearly  twenty 
centuries  earlier.  In  67  B.C.  a  certain  Lu  Wen-shu  presented  to  the 
throne  a  memorial,  in  which  he  said  :  "  Of  the  ten  thousand  follies  of 
our  predecessors  one  still  survives  in  the  maladministration  of  justice 
which  prevails.  .  .  .  Nothing  is  wanting  to  make  this  a  golden  age, 
save  only  reform  in  the  administration  of  justice  "  (Giles,  History  of 
Chinese  Literature,  89-90). 


KWANGHSU   THE   REFORMER        173 

tions  which  it  contained.  He  admitted  the  writer 
into  his  presence,  and  from  that  moment  Kang  was 
his  supreme  adviser  and  his  familiar  friend,  to  the 
intense  disgust  alike  of  the  Imperial  clansmen  and 
the  high  office-holders  at  Peking. 

Foreign  critics  have  been  very  much  divided  in 
opinion  concerning  Kang  Yu-wei  ;  but  on  the  whole 
their  verdict,  after  his  failure,  was  unfavourable  to 
him.  While  he  received  some  sympathy  from  indi- 
viduals and  (what  was  very  necessary  to  him  after 
the  Empress  Dowager  came  back  to  power)  the 
protection  of  British,  Colonial,  Japanese,  and  other 
Governments,  he  was  the  object  of  much  abuse,  being 
called  a  dangerous  agitator,  self-seeking,  and  half- 
educated.1 

The  judgments  of  his  countrymen  upon  him 
were  still  more  diverse.  In  his  native  province 
of  Kwangtung  he  was  early  hailed  as  "  the  young 
Confucius"  and  "the  Modern  Sage,"  and  when  as  a 
result  of  his  success  in  the  examinations  for  official 
posts  he  obtained  a  senior  clerkship  at  the  Board  of 
Works,  Peking,  he  had  already  secured  for  himself 
a  strong  following  in  the  ranks  of  the  Young  China 
party.  But  the  old-fashioned  scholars  would  have 

1  Meeting  him  myself  in  the  latter  part  of  1904,  when  he  was  in 
London,  an  exile  from  China  and  an  outlaw,  I  was  favourably  im- 
pressed by  his  conversation,  though  I  judged  that  his  enthusiasm 
excelled  his  depth  of  intellect.  He  allowed  himself  to  be  exploited 
by  the  "  prophet "  Dowie  in  the  United  States  soon  after  this.  He 
did  not  strike  me  as  self-seeking. 


174   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

none  of  him,  and  he  had  bitter  enemies  even  among 
Chinese  of  more  modern  education.1 

Having  now  the  Emperor's  ear,  Kang  Yu-wei 
poured  into  it  not  only  the  aspirations  of  the 
Reformers,  but  also  the  opinions  of  the  Chinese 
on  their  rulers.  He  told  him,  it  is  said,  that  the 
Empress  Dowager,  although  feared,  was  very  un- 
popular, especially  since  the  national  humiliation 
by  Japan,  and  began  to  urge  upon  him  the  necessity 
of  removing  from  her  hands  all  power  yet  remaining 
in  her  grasp.  Kwanghsu  was  uneasy  at  the  sugges- 
tion, being  still  bound  by  strong  ties  of  gratitude 
to  the  woman  who  had  placed  him  on  the  throne. 
Consequently  we  find  his  policy  in  the  first  half  of 
1898  marked  by  extreme  inconsistency  and,  apart 
from  the  actual  Reform  programme,  hard  to  follow. 

In  May  Prince  Kung  died,  aged  about  sixty-six. 
His  death  was  almost  at  once  followed  by  a  rearrange- 
ment of  high  posts.  Weng  Tung-ho,  the  Emperor's 
tutor,  was  dismissed  from  his  offices,  his  place  on  the 
Tsungli  Yamen  being  filled  by  Wang  Wen-shao, 
Viceroy  of  Chihli,  and  Chihli  being  transferred  to 
Yunglu,  an  able  and  handsome  Manchu,  nephew 
of  the  Empress  Dowager,  and  therefore  cousin  by 
marriage  of  the  Emperor.  Rumours  were  rife  in 

1  The  anonymous  writer  of  a  letter  in  the  Hongkong  Daily  Press  of 
October  29th,  1898,  denounces  him  as  "vain,  egotistic,  conceited, 
selfish,  no  statesman,  envious  of  English-speaking  Westernized 
Chinese,  a  pilferer  who  does  not  acknowledge  the  sources  from  which 
he  borrows."  "  The  mad  Hong  "  was  a  name  sometimes  flung  at  his 
head — Hong  Yau-wei  being  a  dialectical  variant  of  Kang  Yu-wei. 


KWANGHSU   THE   REFORMER        175 

Peking  as  to  the  meaning  of  these  changes.  It  had 
been  hinted  for  months  past  that  Prince  Kung's  death 
would  be  a  signal  for  the  Dowager  to  reassert  herself. 
The  removal  of  Weng  was  attributed  to  his  ideas  of 
reform  being  too  slow  for  his  Imperial  pupil,  his 
friendship  with  Prince  Kung  having  hitherto  pre- 
served him.  But  the  fresh  honours  for  Yunglu.  who 

o      * 

with  his  appointment  to  Chihli  became  also  Generalis- 
simo of  the  Peiyang  or  Northern  Forces,  and  there- 
fore was  in  a  position  to  overawe  the  capital  when  the 
occasion  arose,  was  clearly  due  to  the  Dowager,  with 
whom  he  was  a  great  favourite.  Four  years  earlier 
he  had  only  been  an  officer  in  a  provincial  garrison 
town,  whence  she  had  brought  him  to  put  him  at  the 
head  of  the  Peking  gendarmerie.  Tze-hi  was  there- 
fore still  exercising  her  right  to  control  promotion  to 
high  offices.  It  was  suggested  that  Kwanghsu,  by 
yielding  to  her  in  such  matters,  was  endeavouring  to 
salve  his  conscience  while  plotting  to  introduce  a 
programme  to  which  he  could  not  ask  her  consent. 
A  check  on  Yunglu's  supremacy  in  his  province  was 
provided  by  making  Yuan  Shi-kai  the  actual  com- 
mander of  the  Peiyang  Forces,  semi-independent  of 
the  Viceroy.  The  credit  of  this  appointment  has 
been  claimed  for  the  Dowager — an  illustration  of 
her  theory  of  the  balance  of  power — but  it  is  clear 
from  what  happened  in  September  that  the  Emperor 
at  this  time  imagined  Yuan  to  be  a  friend  of  his. 

While  this  reshuffling  of  official  posts  was  in  pro- 
gress,   Kwanghsu    had    embarked    upon    his   scheme 


176    GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

of  reforming  the  Empire  from  top  to  bottom.  A 
truly  astonishing  stream  of  edicts  poured  forth  from 
June  nth  to  the  beginning  of  September.  We  need, 
however,  only  notice  the  salient  points  in  the  Imperial 
programme,  which  was  developed  in  a  series  of 
twenty-seven  decrees. 

In  that  of  June  nth  the  Emperor  gave  notice 
of  a  number  of  changes  which  he  wished  to  bring 
about,  particularly  in  military  and  educational  matters, 
and  spoke  of  the  weakness  and  emptiness  of  the 
arguments  of  the  old  Chinese  officials  against  his 
ideas.  He  concluded  by  ordering  the  institution 
of  a  central  University  at  Peking,  on  modern  lines, 
and  hoping  that  all  would  take  advantage  of  the 
education  there  offered  to  them.  This  University, 
of  which  the  foundation  was  almost  the  only  item 
in  her  nephew's  programme  the  Empress  Dowager 
did  not  cancel  on  her  return  to  power,  remains  to 
this  day  a  memorial  to  China's  Reforming  Emperor. 

The  establishment  of  the  Peking  University  was 
followed  in  subsequent  edicts  by  a  number  of  drastic 
changes  in  the  national  educational  system.  The 
"literary  essay,"  the  pride  of  the  Chinese  candidate 
for  official  honours,  was  abolished.  Schools  and 
colleges  of  all  kinds,  it  was  ordered,  must  be  opened 
in  the  provincial  capitals  and  other  large  cities  of  the 
Empire.  Former  temple  and  memorial  schools  were 
to  be  converted  into  academies  for  Western  teaching 
— a  step  which  could  not  but  give  great  offence  to 
the  founders  and  supporters  of  these  schools,  as  we 


KANG  YU-WEI 
Chinese  Scholar  and  Reform  Leader 


p.  176 


KWANGHSU   THE   REFORMER        177 

shall  see  that  the  Empress  Dowager  recognized  when 
she  came  to  deal  with  the  education  question.  Then, 
as  a  culmination  of  this  part  of  his  programme,  the 
Emperor,  on  August  9th,  appointed  Dr.  W.  A.  P. 
Martin  head  of  the  foreign  staff  of  professors  at  the 
new  University,  with  the  rank  of  Ta  Jen,  or  "  Great 
Man." 

Military  and  naval  reforms  went  on  concurrently 
with  educational,  European  drill,  hitherto  only 
adopted  for  portions  of  the  Chinese  Army,  being 
recommended  for  all  the  Manchu  troops  in  the 
Empire,  preparations  being  ordered  for  a  new  system 
of  military  examinations,  and  naval  academies  and 
training  ships  being  provided. 

Other  decrees  were  designed  to  promote  railway 
and  mining  enterprise,  to  assist  the  development  of 
trade  and  agriculture,  to  encourage  and  protect 
inventors,  and  to  stimulate  authors  and  journalists. 
A  bold  measure  was  the  adoption  as  the  official  organ 
of  the  Government  of  a  Shanghai  paper,  Chinese 
Progress,  of  which  Kang  Yu-wei  was  to  be  the  editor 
as  soon  as  he  had  finished  his  task  as  assistant  to  the 
Emperor  at  Peking. 

To  meet  the  opposition  which  he  felt  his  schemes 
to  be  arousing,  Kwanghsu  in  an  early  decree  ex- 
pressed himself  willing  to  hear  all  objections  against 
them.  But  he  also  censured  those  who  put  obstacles 
in  the  way  of  the  new  University's  progress,  and 
went  on  to  call  upon  the  authorities,  metropolitan 
and  provincial,  to  co-operate  with  him  in  introducing 

N 


178   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

reforms,  menacing  with  punishment  those  who  clung 
to  out-of-date  ideas.  On  the  other  hand,  he  cordially 
invited  suggestions  concerning  desirable  innovations. 
The  Emperor's  zeal  was  evidently  growing  with 
each  new  decree,  and  by  the  end  of  August  he  deter- 
mined on  a  heavy  blow  at  the  old  official  system. 
With  one  stroke  he  abolished  no  less  than  six 
Government  Boards,  including  that  which  was  up 
to  now  concerned  with  the  supervision  of  public 
instruction.  Their  duties  were  apportioned  among 
other  existing  Boards,  and  so  a  large  staff  of  office- 
holders was  thrown  out  of  employment.  This  was 
a  rash  enough  step.  But  on  September  ist  Kwanghsu 
went  further  and  dismissed  from  their  posts  the  two 
Presidents  (one  Manchu  and  one  Chinese)  and  four 
Vice-Presi  dents  of  the  Board  of  Rites,  because,  in 
defiance  of  his  order  that  memorials  should  be 
allowed  to  come  to  him  sealed,  the  Board  had  opened 
a  memorial  from  one  of  their  own  clerks,  an  ardent 
Reformer.  The  clerk  had  recommended  the  abolition 
of  the  queue,  the  adoption  of  Western  dress,  the 
establishment  of  Christianity  as  the  State  religion, 
a  national  Parliament,  and  a  visit  to  Japan  of  the 
Emperor  and  Empress  Dowager.  His  superiors  sent 
the  proposals  up  to  the  throne  with  a  counter* 
memorial  denouncing  them  as  ignorant  and  wild. 
The  Emperor  was  furious  at  the  Board's  presumption 
in  instructing  him  as  to  how  he  should  regard  advice 
to  himself,  and  summarily  turned  the  whole  body  out 
of  office. 


KWANGHSU   THE    REFORMER        179 

This  was  the  beginning  of  the  end.  The  dismissed 
officials  went  off  to  the  Iho  Park  and  laid  their  case 
before  the  Empress  Dowager.  With  many  a  graceful 
compliment  to  the  skill  with  which  she  had  for  so 
many  years  handled  the  affairs  of  State,  they  pointed 
out  how  different  was  the  position  now,  when  her 
nominee  and  adopted  son  was  subverting  the  whole 
constitution  of  the  country.  They  besought  her  to 
return  to  Peking  and  restore  the  old  condition 
of  things  sanctioned  by  tradition  and  the  teaching 
of  the  sages.  The  Dowager  listened  in  silence  to  the 
complaints  of  her  petitioners.  When  they  had 
finished,  she  let  them  go  without  declaring  her 
intentions.  But  her  mind  must  now  already  have 
been  decided,  even  if  she  preferred  to  adopt  toward 
the  Emperor  the  course  known  to  politicians  as 
"filling  up  the  cup." 

Kwanghsu  played  into  her  hands  with  all  the 
rapidity  which  could  have  been  desired.  His  next 
edict  abolished  the  provincial  governorships  of 
Kwangtung,  Hupeh,  and  Yunnan,1  and  on  September 
yth  he  dismissed  from  the  Tsungli  Yamen  Li  Hung- 
chang  and  a  Manchu  named  Chin  Hsin,  President 
of  the  Board  of  Revenue.  Li's  dismissal  was  hailed 
with  delight  by  the  British  residents  in  China,  owing 
to  his  pronounced  pro-Russian  tendencies  and  his 
open  rudeness  to  Sir  Claude  Macdonald  when  they 

1  These  are  three  of  the  Chinese  provinces  which,  although  under 
the  Viceroyalties  of  the  Liang  Kwang,  Liang  Hu,  and  Yun-kwei, 
have  also  Governors  of  their  own. 


180   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

met  in  Peking.  But  it  was  not  to  be  expected  that 
Li  would  fall  unavenged.  No  more  formidable 
addition  could  have  been  made  to  the  ranks  of  the 
unemployed  officials  of  China. 

Three  more  edicts,  the  most  important  of  which 
provided  for  the  introduction  of  a  Budget  for  China 
on  Western  lines,  completed  the  Emperor's  task  as 
far  as  he  was  allowed  to  carry  it  out.  Then  came 
the  crash,  and  the  destruction  of  the  hopes  of  Young 
China's  leaders  for  many  years  to  come — the  descrip- 
tion of  which  must  be  left  for  the  next  chapter. 

The  chief  error  which  Kwanghsu  committed,  ac- 
cording to  his  friendly  critics  from  the  West,  was 
that  he  attempted  to  crowd  into  a  short  space  of  time 
a  very  ambitious  scheme  of  reform,  affecting  every 
branch  of  Chinese  life.  There  was  not  one  among 
his  changes  which  was  not  for  the  better,  in  the  eyes 
of  foreigners  ;  yet  even  to  them  his  pace  appeared 
precipitate.  And  undoubtedly  the  criticism  is  just. 
China  was  not  ripe  for  so  rapid  and  wholesale  a  re- 
constitution  of  her  state.  Misled  by  the  enthusiasm 
of  his  friends  of  the  Reform  Party,  Kwanghsu  seems 
to  have  counted  on  the  popular  welcome  given  to 
his  innovations  silencing  the  objections  of  the  old- 
fashioned  Conservatives.  But  the  old  brigade  were 
intrenched  in  office  all  over  the  Empire.  When 
their  offices  began  to  be  threatened  their  corporate 
spirit  was  aroused,  and  each  successive  assault  directed 
against  them  only  found  them  more  desperately  re- 
solved on  fighting  to  the  end.  It  was  easy  for  them 


KWANGHSU   THE   REFORMER        181 

to  appeal  to  the  innate  Chinese  reverence  for  antiquity, 
which  coexists  with  a  very  considerable  capacity  for 
appreciating  modern  inventions,  especially  when  they 
make  for  increased  comfort  and  luxury.  And,  as 
has  been  pointed  out  already,  into  the  hands  of  the 
reactionaries  a  fatal  weapon  had  been  put  by  the  very 
nations  of  the  outer  world  whose  ways  the  Emperor 
was  calling  upon  his  subjects  to  admire  and  imitate. 
While  he  was  giving  China  education  and  institutions 
of  all  kinds  on  foreign  lines,  the  foreigners  were 
taking  from  her  her  best  harbours  and  openly  mark- 
ing out  her  territory  for  future  dismemberment.  At 
the  very  time  when  Kwanghsu  was  pouring  out  his 
edicts,  Great  Britain,  following  the  lead  of  her  three 
principal  rivals,  was  securing  from  the  Tsungli  Yamen 
a  "  lease "  of  Weihaiwei  and  an  extension  of  her 
territory  on  the  mainland  facing  Hongkong.  There 
were  many  enlightened  men  in  China  who  could  see 
the  force  of  the  argument  that  it  was  necessary  to 
imitate  the  ways  of  foreigners  in  order  to  be  able  to 
resist  their  aggressions  and  preserve  the  integrity  of 
the  Celestial  Empire.  It  was  no  matter  for  wonder, 
however,  that  they  should  not  have  been  able  to 
recognize  the  benefit  of  the  introduction  of  Western 
institutions  combined  with  the  surrender  of  the  keys 
of  the  Empire  to  the  robbers  from  the  West. 
Kwanghsu  was  in  the  first  place  betrayed  by  those 
very  people  whose  civilization  had  inspired  him  with 
so  much  enthusiasm. 


CHAPTER   XIII 

THE   REACTION 

A  T  the  beginning  of  September,  1898,  the  position 
of  affairs  between  the  Emperor  in  the  Forbidden 
City  and  the  Empress  Dowager  at  the  Iho  Park  had 
become  too  critical  to  allow  any  hopes  of  a  com- 
promise. The  reforming  Emperor  found  that  all 
those  of  whom  he  had  made  enemies  were  flocking 
to  the  Dowager's  Court  to  ease  their  rebellious  hearts 
with  complaints  against  him.  His  friends  were 
urging  him  to  take  measures  which  would  put  an 
end  to  this.  Kang  Yu-wei  and  his  intimates  were 
pressing,  it  was  said,  for  the  conversion  of  the  ex- 
Regent's  palace  into  a  prison,  where  any  further 
interference  in  matters  of  State  would  be  impossible 
for  her.  And  as  a  first  step  they  counselled  the 
Emperor  to  get  rid  of  the  man  in  whom  his  aunt 
reposed  most  trust  now  that  Li  Hung-chang  had 
grown  too  old  to  be  relied  on  for  bold  action. 
Nothing  less  than  the  death  of  Yunglu  would  satisfy 
them.  Kwanghsu  appears  to  have  given  his  assent 
to  both  the  removal  of  his  cousin  and  the  arrest  of 
his  aunt,  having  at  last  conquered  his  feelings  of 
gratitude  toward  the  latter  by  the  reflection  that  she 
now  was  the  chief  obstacle  in  the  way  of  the  completion 

of  his  schemes  for  the  regeneration  of  his  country. 

182 


THE    REACTION  183 

On  her  side,  Tze-hi,  although  she  had  refused  to 
express  any  opinion  before  the  deputation  of  dis- 
missed officials  of  the  Board  of  Rites,  had  made  up 
her  mind  that  the  time  had  come  to  put  an  effective 
stop  to  the  proceedings  of  her  adopted  son.  Those 
who  misjudge  her  character  most  and  look  on  her 
as  an  opponent  of  all  progress  find  no  difficulty  at 
this  time  in  imagining  her  eager  to  strike  at  the  Re- 
formers because  she  hated  Reform.  But  subsequent 
events  showed  her  to  be  by  no  means  averse  from 
Reform,  indeed  an  introducer  of  innovations  as  bold 
as  those  of  Kwanghsu  himself.  No  doubt  there  was 
much  inconsistency  in  her  attitude,  as  was  inevitable 
with  one  who  made  so  much  of  opportunity.  But 
the  bitterness  of  her  campaign  against  the  Emperor's 
friends  in  1898  was  due  not  to  her  dislike  of  pro- 
gress, but  to  her  jealousy  of  their  attacks  on  her 
remnants  of  authority  and  her  apprehension  of  im- 
prisonment, perhaps  even  of  death. 

Nor  was  she  without  justification  in  her  fear  of  the 
Young  China  Party.  They  were  bent  on  banishing 
her  for  ever  from  public  life,  whatever  the  cost,  and 
would  not  hesitate  at  murder  of  her  supporters.  Of 
the  gossip  at  Peking  she  had  kept  herself  well  in- 
formed ever  since  she  had  retired  to  Iho  Park. 
While  she  refused  to  act  upon  gossip  and  surmise, 
she  made  her  preparations.  When  the  warning  came 
in  unmistakable  form  she  was  ready  to  act  upon  it 
without  an  instant's  delay. 

She  had,  as  we  know,  taken  care  that  the  Viceroy 


1 84    GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

of  Chihli  and  titular  Generalissimo  of  the  Peking 
Field  Forces  should  be  her  own  sister's  son.  Yunglu's 
influence  in  his  province,  however,  was  held  in  check 
by  the  fact  that  Yuan  Shi-kai  was  the  actual  com- 
mander of  the  Field  Forces.  The  Emperor  thought 
that  he  could  trust  Yuan,  and,  having  agreed  to  the 
Reformers'  proposals,  summoned  him  from  his  head- 
quarters at  Tientsin  and  told  him  to  return,  to  arrest 
and  execute  Yunglu,  and  then  to  march  on  the  Iho 
Park  and  make  a  prisoner  of  the  Dowager. 

The  man  in  whose  hands  the  success  or  failure 
of  the  Reform  movement  was  thus  placed  has  com- 
mended himself  to  foreigners  by  his  combination 
of  courage,  honesty,  and  broad-mindedness.  At  the 
same  time  he  must  be  admitted  to  be  not  only  some- 
what of  a  trimmer,  but  also  rather  lacking  in  scruples 
as  to  the  manner  in  which  he  performs  his  duty. 
Divided  in  his  allegiance  in  September,  1898,  he 
elected  to  betray  the  Emperor  and  be  faithful  to  his 
immediate  military  superior.  He  left  Peking  to  go 
straight  to  Yunglu  and  inform  him  of  the  task  which 
had  been  entrusted  to  him.  Thereby  he  gained  the 
bitter  hatred  of  the  Reform  Party  and  also  of 
Kwanghsu's  brother  Chun,  the  present  ruler  of 
China,  who  as  soon  as  he  became  Regent  took  the 
opportunity  of  dispensing  with  Yuan's  services. 

But  Yuan  Shi-kai  had  saved  the  Empress  Dowager. 
Yunglu,  as  soon  as  he  was  informed  of  the  plot,  went 
secretly  to  Peking,  called  on  Prince  Ching,  and  with 
him  hastened  to  Iho  Park.  The  Dowager  received 


YUAN   SHI-KAI 


p.  it 


THE    REACTION  185 

them,  listened  to  the  story  they  had  to  tell,  and  with- 
out a  moment's  delay  called  for  her  sedan-chair. 
Accompanied  by  an  escort  of  eunuchs  only,  she  sped 
down  from  the  Mount  of  Ten  Thousand  Ages  to 
Peking,  made  her  way  through  the  Tartar  quarter 
into  the  Forbidden  City,  and  seized  the  "Solitary 
Man"  in  the  Palace  which  he  shared  with  women 
and  eunuchs.  Never  was  a  revolution  accomplished 
with  less  of  a  struggle.  Bloodshed  was  to  follow, 
but  the  Government  had  first  changed  hands  without 
a  blow  being  struck — except  one  which  Tze-hi  is 
said  to  have  dealt  the  Emperor  with  her  fan  after 
she  had  come  into  his  presence  and  overwhelmed 
him  with  a  torrent  of  reproaches.  Kwanghsu  made 
no  attempt  to  resist,  and  allowed  his  aunt  to  resume 
possession  of  the  Great  Seal,  which  had  been  his  to 
use  for  so  short  a  time.  He  seems  to  have  been 
paralysed  with  fear.  All  he  could  do  was  to  send  a 
couple  of  messages  or  secret  decrees  to  Kang  Yu-wei. 
In  the  first  of  these  he  states  that  the  Reform  schemes 
do  not  commend  themselves  to  the  Empress  Dowager. 
"  We  have  repeatedly  given  advice  to  Her  Majesty," 
he  says,  "but  she  becomes  more  and  more  enraged, 
and  we  are  now  afraid  that  we  shall  not  be  able  to 
protect  our  throne."  In  the  second,  more  personal 
in  tone,  he  informs  Kang  of  what  has  happened,  and 
adds  :  "  My  heart  is  filled  with  very  great  sorrow, 
which  pen  and  ink  cannot  describe.  You  must  go 
abroad  at  once,  and  without  a  moment's  delay  devise 
some  means  of  saving  me." 


1 86   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

Thanks  to  the  Emperor's  warning,  Kang  Yu-wei 
was  able  to  seek  a  night's  refuge  at  the  Japanese 
Legation,  and  then  with  a  few  friends  he  was 
smuggled  away  to  Tientsin,  whence  he  took  ship 
for  Shanghai  and  Hongkong.  His  brother  Kang 
Kwang-jen  and  other  leading  Reformers,  less  fortun- 
ate, were  arrested  before  they  could  leave  Peking. 

Kwanghsu  was  now  entirely  under  his  aunt's 
control.  On  September  2ist  an  edict  appeared  in 
his  name  as  follows  : — 

"  Whereas  at  the  present  moment  many  urgent  and 
complicated  affairs  of  public  importance  call  for  atten- 
tion, and  We  are  afraid  that  in  spite  of  Our  utmost 
exertions  some  of  these  may  be  mismanaged  ;  and 
whereas  Her  Majesty  the  Empress  Dowager  has  twice 
successfully  conducted  the  administration  since  the 
reign  of  Tungchih  ;  We  therefore,  giving  due  regard 
to  the  greatness  of  the  Empire  bequeathed  to  Us  by 
Our  ancestors,  having  repeatedly  asked  Her  Majesty 
to  associate  Herself  again  with  the  management  of 
Imperial  affairs,  have  at  length  succeeded  in  obtaining 
Her  consent.  This  is  a  great  blessing  to  all  subjects 
of  this  Empire.  From  this  day  forth  We  will  attend 
to  affairs  of  State  in  the  Side  Hall,  and  will  go,  to- 
gether with  all  the  high  officers  of  the  Empire,  on  the 
eighth  day  of  the  present  moon,  to  congratulate  Her 
Majesty  in  the  Administrative  Palace." 

On  the  eighth  day,  accordingly,  which  was  Sep- 
tember 23rd,  the  Emperor,  who  little  more  than  a 
week  before  had  been  issuing  his  stream  of  decrees 


THE    REACTION  187 

affecting  every  portion  of  the  Empire,  went  and  did 
obeisance  humbly  to  the  August  Ancestor  who  had 
so  suddenly  reminded  him  of  her  existence. 
Rumours  were  current  in  native  circles  in  Peking 
that  he  was  seriously  ill,  and  hinting  at  his  probable 
early  death.  It  is  not  strange  that  the  continued 
appearance  of  edicts  gave  no  comfort  to  his  well- 
wishers  ;  for  it  was  easy  to  see  that  the  mind  which 
composed  them  now  was  not  his.  An  astounding 
recantation  of  his  reform  views  was  put  into  his 
mouth  in  a  decree  three  days  after  the  homage  in 
the  Administrative  Palace.  "  The  reforms  recently 
ordered  by  Us,"  he  was  made  to  say,  "  were  designed 
to  give  the  masses  better  chances  of  improving  their 
condition.  .  .  .  We  never  ordered  them  for  the  mere 
pleasure  of  changing  things  nor  with  the  wish  to  do 
away  with  the  old  traditions  which  had  been  handed 
down  to  Us.  We  feel  sure  that  the  great  body  of 
Our  officials  and  Our  people  will  recognize  that  these 
reforms  were  occasioned  by  the  dangers  which 
threatened  this  Empire.  .  .  .  Our  real  desire  was 
to  abolish  superfluous  posts  for  economy's  sake.  We 
find,  however,  that  rumours  are  flying  about  that 
We  intended  a  wholesale  change  of  the  customs 
of  the  country,  and  that  in  consequence  a  vast 
number  of  impossible  suggestions  for  reform  have  been 
made  to  Us.  If  We  tolerated  a  continuance  of  this, 
no  one  could  tell  to  what  a  pass  things  would  come." 
If  Kwanghsu  was  in  such  a  position  that  he  was 
obliged  to  father  such  sentiments  as  these,  then  there 


1 88    GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

was  little  hope  for  him,  in  the  opinion  of  his  native 
sympathizers.  As  for  the  foreign  residents  of  Peking, 
consternation  seized  them  as  they  came  back  from 
their  annual  holiday  on  the  Western  Hills,  fifteen 
miles  outside  the  walls  of  the  capital,  hastened  by 
the  tales  which  reached  them  of  ominous  unrest  in 
various  parts  of  the  country.  One  of  the  first  pieces 
of  news  which  greeted  them  was  that  the  younger 
Kang  and  five  other  Reformers,  one  a  Censor  and 
four  secretaries  of  the  Tsungli  Yamen,  had  been 
beheaded  on  the  execution-ground  in  the  Western 
section  of  the  Chinese  City. 

On  September  28th  the  six  young  men  met  their 
fate  bravely,  with  curses  against  the  Empress  Dowager 
on  their  lips  and  confident  assertions  that,  easy  as  it 
was  to  take  their  lives,  for  each  one  of  them  slain  a 
thousand  others  would  spring  up  to  take  their  places 
in  the  battle  for  freedom  and  reform. 

The  Emperor  was  made  to  give  his  approval  to 
this  deed  in  an  edict  next  day,  in  which  he  denounced 
Kang  Yu-wei's  doctrines  as  opposed  to  the  ancient 
Confucian  tenets  and,  accusing  him  of  nefarious 
designs  against  the  dynasty,  ordered  his  immediate 
arrest  and  trial.  He  went  on  to  speak  of  the 
punishment  of  Kang's  brother  and  his  five  companions. 
"  Fearing  that  if  there  should  be  any  delay  in  sen- 
tencing them  they  might  endeavour  to  entangle  many 
others,  We  yesterday  ordered  their  immediate 
execution,  thus  preventing  further  troubles." 

A    rapid    destruction    of   almost    every    Reform 


THE    REACTION  189 

measure  followed.  The  six  abolished  Boards  were 
restored,  together  with  the  three  governorships. 
While  the  University  of  Peking  and  the  schools  in 
the  provincial  capitals  were  allowed  to  remain,  the 
compulsion  to  establish  lower  schools  was  done  away 
with,  and  the  conversion  of  existing  religious  and 
memorial  schools  into  Government  institutions  was 
cancelled.  The  invitation  to  send  in  memorials  sug- 
gesting desirable  changes  was  withdrawn.  The  journal 
Chinese  Progress  was  suppressed  as  "  of  no  real 
use  to  the  Government,  but  on  the  contrary  an  incite- 
ment of  the  masses  to  evil."  Very  shortly  all  news- 
papers throughout  the  Empire  were  ordered  to  cease 
publication  as  being  incentives  to  the  subversion  of 
order,  and  their  editors  were  branded  as  "  the  dregs 
of  the  literary  classes."  Kwanghsu's  liberal  encour- 
agement to  journalists  had  resulted  sadly  for  them. 

Concurrent  with  the  overthrow  of  the  programme 
of  June-September,  a  reign  of  terror  was  instituted 
in  Peking  against  the  adherents  of  the  Young  China 
Party  holding  official  posts.  Kang  Yu-wei  had 
escaped,  but  for  some  time  it  went  very  hardly  with 
anyone  known  to  have  been  connected  with  him  in 
any  way.1  Even  the  captain  of  the  gunboat  which 
had  been  sent  to  cut  off  his  flight  to  Shanghai  was 

1  According  to  Professor  Headland,  the  Reform  Party  in  Peking 
numbered  two  hundred  and  forty  members,  of  whom  sixty  were 
Hanlins,  and  the  first  intention  was  to  punish  them  all.  But  Yunglu 
and  Prince  Ching  counselled  moderation,  and  so  only  the  ringleaders 
were  prosecuted.  It  was  never  known  to  what  extent  the  sympathizers 
with  the  movement  inside  the  Palace  suffered. 


190   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

thrown  into  prison  for  not  bringing  him  back, 
although  his  capture  would  certainly  have  produced 
international  complications.  But  in  the  virulence  of 
her  hatred  for  Kang  Yu-wei  (explicable  by  the  fact 
that  she  knew  he  had  planned  the  death  of  her 
nephew  Yunglu,  and  may  well  have  suspected  him  of 
worse  designs  against  herself  than  imprisonment  for 
the  rest  of  her  life)  she  recklessly  associated  herself 
with  the  enemies  of  Reform,  and  allowed  herself  to 
appear  in  the  light  of  a  reactionary  and  a  hater  of 
foreigners. 

So  "  the  wind  blew  and  the  grass  bent."  Anti- 
foreign  disturbances  began  in  the  very  capital  and  in 
its  neighbourhood.  On  the  last  day  of  September  a 
Peking  mob,  shouting  "  Death  to  the  foreign  devils," 
attacked  two  Legation  officials,  one  British  and  one 
American,  returning  home  with  some  ladies  from  the 
railway-station  outside  the  walls.  In  alarm  the  Lega- 
tions telegraphed  to  Tientsin  for  a  guard,  and  an 
international  force  of  marines  was  sent  up,  to  remain 
until  the  following  spring.  This  quieted  the  Peking 
populace,  but  on  October  23rd  an  attack  was  made  on 
a  party  of  Englishmen  about  eight  miles  away  from 
Peking  while  they  were  inspecting  operations  on  the 
Lu-Han  railway,  which  was  to  connect  Peking  and 
Hankow.  The  only  serious  casualty  was  the  death 
of  a  native  employee  on  the  engineering  staff,  but  the 
Legations  took  the  matter  up  vigorously  owing  to 
the  assailants  being  Chinese  soldiers  and  not  a  mere 
mob. 


THE   REACTION  191 

When  the  Empress  Dowager  made  her  memorable 
return  to  Peking  in  Mid-September,  orders  had  been 
sent  to  a  Chinese  general,  Tung  Fu-hsiang  by  name, 
to  come  to  the  capital  with  his  troops — a  force  of 
irregulars,  Mohammedans  by  religion  and  recruited  in 
Kansu  province.  Tung  Fu-hsiang  himself  was  an 
ex-rebel  who  had  entered  the  Imperial  service,  a 
bullying  ignorant  man,  who  had  nevertheless  made 
for  himself  a  reputation  by  his  suppression  of  a 
revolt  in  Kansu.  He  came  to  Peking  full  of  pride, 
and,  securing  an  interview  with  the  Dowager,  boasted 
that  he  could  drive  every  foreigner  into  the  sea.  Tze- 
hi,  it  was  said,  merely  smiled  and  told  him  that  the 
time  had  not  yet  arrived  for  that.  But  Tung's 
"  braves "  were  eager  to  make  good  their  general's 
words,  and  took  the  opportunity  to  attack  the  first 
party  of  foreigners  with  whom  they  came  in  contact. 
On  the  complaint  of  the  Legations  the  Dowager  was 
compelled  to  take  action,  and  the  guilty  men  were 
courtmartialled  and  punished  in  the  presence  of  the 
foreigners  whom  they  had  assaulted.  Tung  Fu-hsiang, 
however,  lost  nothing  by  the  affair,  and  began  to  grow 
very  influential  in  Peking. 

While  these  troubles  occurred  outside,  within  the 
Palace  mystery  reigned.  It  was  reported  that  the 
Emperor  had  been  conveyed  to  the  Iho  Park,  and  that 
he  was  a  close  prisoner  on  an  island  in  the  ornamental 
waters  there  ;  or  that  he  was  a  captive  in  one  of  the 
island-palaces  on  the  Lotus  Lake  in  the  Forbidden 
City,  cut  off  from  the  mainland  by  a  raised  draw- 


192   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

bridge  and  guarded  by  the  Imperial  eunuchs.  The 
ranks  of  these  eunuchs  were  carefully  thinned  out. 
On  October  5th  fourteen  were  said  to  have  been 
strangled  by  the  Dowager's  orders  for  "  disloyalty." 
Three  days  later  several  more  were  beheaded,  and 
in  the  following  week  others  suffered  the  same 
fate,  the  alleged  charge  against  them  being  that 
they  had  without  orders  provided  the  Emperor  with 
warmer  clothing.  Much  comment  was  aroused  by 
the  disappearance  of  a  troupe  of  well-known  actors 
whom  the  Emperor  had  favoured  with  command 
performances  at  the  Palace  during  his  freedom.  It 
was  declared  that  they  had  prudently  fled  after  their 
manager  had  smuggled  into  the  Palace,  with  the  help 
of  certain  eunuchs,  a  suit  of  European  clothes  to 
help  the  Emperor  to  escape.  The  Dowager  dis- 
covered the  plot,  but  the  actors  had  vanished,  and 
only  the  eunuchs  remained  to  bear  the  brunt  of  her 
wrath. 

It  was  only  natural  that  stories  of  intended  foul 
play  against  the  Emperor  should  multiply,  especially 
as  it  was  given  out  officially  that  his  health  was  bad. 
The  Legations  took  the  matter  up,  although  up  to 
now  there  had  been  a  tendency  to  dismiss  the  Palace 
revolution  as  nothing  more  than  a  mere  Manchu 
family  quarrel ;  and  it  is  supposed  that  Sir  Claude 
Macdonald  warned  the  Tsungli  Yamen  that  serious 
consequences  might  be  expected  if  His  Majesty  died 
suddenly.  Tze-hi  thereupon  issued  an  edict  inviting 
foreign  doctors  to  see  her  nephew.  On  October  i  yth 


THE   REACTION  193 

Dr.  Detheve,  of  the  French  Legation,  went  to  see 
Kwanghsu,  but  found  nothing  seriously  amiss  with 
him,  though  he  appeared  to  be  suffering  from  the 
effects  of  close  confinement. 

Perhaps  in  consequence  of  this  Kwanghsu  was 
allowed  more  liberty.  At  any  rate,  before  October 
ended  a  rumour  went  round  Peking  that  he  had 
made  an  attempt  to  escape.  It  was  said  that  he  had 
contrived  to  get  away  from  the  island  on  the  Summer 
Palace  lake  and  reach  the  gates  of  the  Park,  with  a 
crowd  of  frightened  eunuchs  pursuing  him.  At  the 
gates  he  found  his  way  barred  by  creatures  of  the 
Empress  Dowager,  who  shut  them  against  him.  At 
his  feet  the  eunuchs  threw  themselves,  weeping  and 
beseeching  him  to  go  no  further,  as  that  would  mean 
their  death  at  the  Dowager's  hands.  Kwanghsu  turned 
back  and  re-entered  his  prison.  We  next  hear  of 
him  in  Peking  on  November  8th,  suffered  by  his 
aunt  to  join  her  in  an  audience  to  the  Japanese 
Minister.  This  was  held,  it  must  be  noted,  in  the 
Empress  Dowager's  audience-hall,  not  in  the  room 
where  since  1894  Kwanghsu  had  been  wont  to  re- 
ceive the  foreign  ministers. 

The  Chinese  were  firmly  convinced  that  it  was  the 
Dowager's  intention  either  to  put  Kwanghsu  out  of 
the  way  altogether  or  to  force  him  to  sign  an  abdica- 
tion of  the  throne.  According  to  them,  it  was  Yunglu 
who  intervened  to  save  his  life.  If  there  was  any 
truth  in  this,  it  was  very  generous  of  Yunglu,  who 
certainly  owed  no  gratitude  to  the  Emperor  for  the 


194   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

fact  that  he  himself  was  alive  at  the  present  moment. 
But  the  accusation  of  intending  Kwanghsu's  murder 
cannot  be  considered  proven  against  the  Empress 
Dowager.  There  is  a  serious  suspicion  that  she 
desired  him  out  of  the  way  of  all  opportunity  of  in- 
terference with  her  power.  Would  she  have  ventured 
to  attain  her  desire  by  poisoning  him,  had  there  been 
no  foreign  representatives  resident  in  Peking  and  had 
Yunglu  been  thirsting  for  revenge  ?  Her  enemies 
all  say  Yes,  her  admirers  No. 

Whether  or  not  his  life  was  in  danger,  the  Emperor 
Kwanghsu  was  condemned  to  perpetual  misery.  He 
becomes  from  this  time  onward  a  most  pathetic  figure. 
The  enthusiastic  young  dreamer  in  his  palace-prison 
watched  with  his  mournful  eyes  the  reversal  of  almost 
every  measure  which  he  had  considered  necessary  for 
the  welfare  of  the  mighty  Empire  handed  down  to 
him  by  his  ancestors.  "  The  great  and  arduous  work 
of  putting  our  country  on  a  level  with  the  best  of  the 
Western  Powers,"  of  which  he  had  spoken  in  his 
first  Reform  edict,  had  all  gone  for  nought.  In  place 
of  his  liberal  edicts  he  saw  issuing  in  his  name  a 
series  of  reactionary  measures  which  he  could  only 
regard  as  ruinous  to  China.  He  witnessed  the 
murder  and  harrying  of  those  whom  he  had  made 
his  friends — again  in  his  name.  He  found  in  the 
woman  who  had  first  given  him  the  chance  of  being 
Kwanghsu  the  Reformer  a  stern  gaoler,  who  locked 
him  up  in  a  tiny  island,  with  a  retinue  of  eunuchs 
now  changed  daily  to  prevent  any  growth  of  sympathy 


THE   REACTION  195 

between  them  and  him,  and  who  clearly  never  meant 
him  to  influence  his  country  any  more. 

In  his  wretchedness  the  Emperor  is  said  to  have 
conceived  the  notion  of  a  day  of  vengeance.  On 
such  few  occasions  as  he  had  a  chance  of  talking  with 
anyone  in  whom  he  could  find  a  confidant,  he  spoke 
of  making  others  suffer  as  he  suffered  now.  In 
particular  he  desired  to  have  the  power  of  dealing 
with  Yuan  Shi-kai.  Against  the  Dowager  he  is  not 
known  to  have  said  anything  except  that  her  death, 
provided  that  he  did  not  fall  a  victim  to  the 
machinations  of  his  enemies  first,  might  be  the  signal 
of  his  reckoning  with  those  who  had  betrayed  him. 
Was  it  terror  or  exaggerated  reverence  for  the 
"  august  ancestress "  which  prevented  Kwanghsu 
from  cherishing  any  hope  of  asserting  himself  again 
while  she  remained  alive  ?  We  must  be  inclined  to 
suspect  a  mixture  of  both  feelings.  Active  courage 
was  not  one  of  the  qualities  of  the  unhappy  Kwanghsu. 
He  needed  the  inspiration  of  a  bolder  spirit  to  make 
him  daring.  And,  iconoclast  as  he  was  in  many  ways, 
one  idol  which  he  could  never  throw  down  in  his 
heart  was  that  of  Filial  Piety,  which  China  enjoined 
should  be  shown  toward  adoptive  as  much  as  toward 
natural  parents. 


CHAPTER    XIV 
BEFORE  THE   STORM 

"1T7HILE  Kwanghsu  gazed  with  melancholy  eyes 
across  the  waters  at  the  capital  of  an  Empire 
no  longer  his,  she  who  had  given  him  the  Empire  and 
taken  it  away  was  bestowing  punishments  and  rewards 
with  a  free  hand  on  those  who  had  taken  part  in  the 
events  of  June-September,  1898.  We  have  seen  how 
bitterly  she  persecuted  the  Reformers,  and  what  scant 
mercy  those  of  Kang  Yu-wei's  friends  received  who 
fell  into  her  clutches.  For  those  who  had  helped  her 
to  upset  the  machinations  of  Kang  her  favours  were 
abundant.  Yunglu  was  elevated  to  the  Grand  Coun- 
cil and  made  Comptroller  General  of  the  Board  of 
War,  which  in  conjunction  with  his  previous  com- 
mand of  the  Peiyang  Forces,  gave  him  almost 
unlimited  authority  over  China's  Army  and  the 
modern  portion  of  her  Navy.  Yuan  Shi-kai  was 
made  a  Vice-President  of  the  Board  of  Works,  and 
then  Acting- Viceroy  of  Chihli  in  succession  to 
Yunglu.  Li  Hung-chang,  in  compensation  for  the 
treatment  which  he  had  received  from  the  Emperor, 
was  given  a  special  commission  in  connection  with 
the  conservancy  of  the  Yellow  River  (which  had  been 
in  flood  in  August),  and  was  soon  to  have  further 

honours. 

196 


BEFORE   THE    STORM  197 

Owing  to  the  control  which  the  Dowager  had 
always  insisted  on  maintaining  over  the  high  appoint- 
ments during  her  retirement,  she  did  not  find  it 
necessary  to  make  many  changes  in  the  administra- 
tion. The  Emperor  had  carried  out  his  reforms 
chiefly  with  the  co-operation  of  junior  officials. 
Tze-hi,  returning  to  power,  had  a  body  of  coun- 
cillors, viceroys,  and  governors  ready  to  do  her 
behests.  It  only  remained  for  her  to  mark  out  those 
in  whom  she  preferred  to  put  most  confidence.  Very 
naturally,  Yunglu  was  one  of  these.  Another  was 
Kangyi,  ex-governor  of  Kwangtung,  a  distant  relative 
of  the  Imperial  family.  Foreigners  have  condemned 
him  unsparingly  as  a  bigoted  reactionary,  but  the 
Empress  Dowager  apparently  thought  highly  of  his 
capacities,  especially  in  the  matter  of  finance,1  and 
used  him  as  a  counterpoise  to  the  excessive  influence 
of  her  powerful  nephew.  In  general  her  tendency 
now,  whether  conscious  or  unconscious,  was  to  give 
undue  favour  to  the  Manchus  as  against  the  Chinese, 
in  contravention  of  the  understanding  which  had 
long  held  good  that  the  two  races  should  divide  the 
high  offices — except,  of  course,  the  highest  of  all — 
between  them. 

In  her  zeal  against  the  Reformers  the  Empress 
Dowager  had  allied  herself  with  men  whose  views 
were  destined  to  put  her  in  a  very  unfavourable  light 
with  all  who  wished  well  for  China.  The  writer 

1  They  gained  him  the  nickname  of  "  Lord  High  Extortioner " 
among  foreigners. 


198    GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

of  her  obituary  notice  in  the  Times  observes  :  "  It 
has  been  said  on  Her  Majesty's  behalf  that  the  coup 
was  the  outcome  of  a  patriotic  fear  that  the  rapid 
pace  of  reform  to  which  the  monarch  had  set  his  seal 
would  cause  a  great  and  lamentable  reaction.  But 
reactionary  forces  could  not  have  been  more  in  the 
ascendant  than  was  the  case  in  the  period  following 
the  coup  alleged  to  have  been  intended  as  a  preven- 
tive." Yet  at  the  very  time  when  she  was  committing 
the  administration  of  the  Empire  to  the  ultra-con- 
servatives and  forming  for  herself  a  special  bodyguard 
of  forty  thousand  troops,  mostly  Manchu — a  step 
which  did  not  fail  to  excite  the  comments  of  the 
foreign  residents  in  China — she  suddenly  showed 
herself  in  a  new  and  unexpectedly  friendly  attitude 
toward  the  very  foreigners  who  had  greeted  her 
return  to  power  as  the  end  of  all  hopes  of  China's 
regeneration. 

It  is  not  correct  to  say,  however,  that  Tze-hi  took 
the  initiative  in  arranging  for  a  reception  of  the  ladies 
from  the  Peking  Legations.  It  appears  that  Prince 
Henry  of  Prussia,  when  about  to  pay  his  visit  to  the 
Imperial  Palace  in  May,  1898,  had  laughingly  asked 
Lady  Macdonald  what  he  could  do  there  on  her 
behalf.  "  Please  tell  Her  Majesty  that  she  ought 
to  let  us  come  to  Court,"  said  the  British  Minister's 
wife.  "  It  shall  be  done,"  replied  Prince  Henry  ; 
and  when  introduced  to  the  Empress  Dowager  next 
day  he  ventured  to  tell  her  that  she  would  not  only 
find  it  a  pleasure  to  receive  the  foreign  ladies,  but  also 


BEFORE   THE   STORM  199 

further  her  country's  interests  by  doing  so.  The 
Empress  graciously  said  that  she  would  be  delighted 
to  have  them  visit  her. 

Early  in  the  following  December,  therefore,  hear- 
ing that  the  ladies  of  the  Legations  were  anxious  to 
offer  her  their  congratulations  upon  the  recent  attain- 
ment of  her  sixty-fourth  birthday,  she  sent  out  an 
invitation  for  ten  of  them  to  come  to  the  Palace 
on  the  1 5th.  The  party,  headed  by  Lady  Macdonald, 
set  out  in  chairs,  with  a  retinue  of  bearers  and  an 
escort,  for  the  gates  of  the  Forbidden  City.  Here 
they  were  met  by  the  Tsungli  Yamen  and  a  number 
of  Imperial  princes.  Leaving  their  private  chairs  and 
their  escorts,  they  were  carried  in  Imperial  sedans 
to  the  Marble  Bridge,  whence  the  miniature  electric 
railway  built  by  the  Emperor's  orders  conveyed  them 
to  the  audience  hall.  At  this  point  they  found  Prince 
Ching,  surrounded  by  princesses  and  Court  ladies, 
waiting  for  them.  Tea  was  served,  after  which  they 
were  ushered  into  the  throne-room.  To  their  sur- 
prise, not  only  the  Empress  Dowager  herself  was 
present,  but  also  the  Emperor.  After  a  general 
introduction,  Lady  Macdonald  read  a  congratulatory 
address  in  English,  the  Empress  Dowager  expressing 
her  thanks  through  Prince  Ching  in  Chinese.  Next 
each  foreign  visitor  was  presented  in  turn,  first  to  the 
Emperor,  who  shook  each  by  the  hand,  and  then 
to  the  Dowager,  who  held  out  both  her  hands  in 
welcome  and  slipped  on  a  finger  of  each  lady  a  heavy 
gold  ring  set  with  a  large  pearl.  The  party  then 


200   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

backed  out  of  the  Imperial  presence,  bowing  as  they 
went. 

But  the  affair  was  not  over  yet.  A  luncheon  was 
laid  in  a  room  adjoining  the  reception-hall,  of  which 
the  visitors  partook  in  the  company  of  Prince  Ching, 
his  wife,  and  five  other  princesses.  Tea  followed 
in  yet  another  room,  after  which  all  were  led  back 
to  that  in  which  they  had  lunched.  The  Empress 
Dowager  was  waiting  for  them,  seated  in  a  chair 
upholstered  in  Imperial  yellow.  She  talked  freely 
and  amiably  to  them  all.  Mrs.  Conger,  wife  of  the 
United  States  Minister  to  Peking,1  thus  described 
her  :  "  She  was  bright  and  happy,  and  her  face  glowed 
with  goodwill.  There  was  no  trace  of  cruelty  to  be 
seen.  In  simple  expressions  she  welcomed  us,  and 
her  actions  were  full  of  freedom  and  warmth.  Her 
Majesty  arose  and  wished  us  well.  She  extended 
both  hands  to  each  lady,  then,  touching  herself,  said 
with  much  enthusiastic  earnestness,  *  One  family — all 
one  family/ ' 

Another  interlude  followed  for  a  theatrical  perform- 
ance, at  which  the  Empress  Dowager  was  not  present. 
She  received  the  visitors  again  after  the  show,  how- 
ever, and  questioned  them  as  to  how  they  had  enjoyed 
themselves,  regretting  that  she  could  provide  them 

1  From  her  account  (Letters  from  China,  pp.  39-42),  and  from  that 
of  a  Peking  correspondent  (evidently  one  of  the  ladies  present)  writing 
to  the  Hongkong  Daily  Press  in  December,  1898,  the  above  description 
is  mainly  taken.  The  Hongkong  Dally  Press  correspondent  says  of  the 
Empress  Dowager  :  "  Her  manner  is  affectionate  amiability  personi- 
fied." 


BEFORE   THE   STORM  201 

with  nothing  like  what  they  were  accustomed  to  at 
home.  Another  drinking  of  tea  was  the  signal  for 
departure.  The  Empress  "  stepped  forward,"  says 
Mrs.  Conger,  "  and  tipped  each  cup  of  tea  to  her  own 
lips  and  took  a  sip,  then  lifted  the  cup,  on  the  other 
side,  to  our  lips  and  said  again,  c  One  family — all  one 
family.' '  A  further  gift  to  each  visitor  and  a  cere- 
monious leave-taking  concluded  the  day,  the  ladies 
departing  "  full  of  admiration  for  Her  Majesty  and 
hopes  for  China." l 

A  truly  extraordinary  piece  of  acting  on  the  part 
of  Her  Majesty  this  must  appear  to  anyone  who 
looks  upon  her  as  foreign-hating  and  narrowly  con- 
servative at  heart.  But  such  a  view  is  a  hasty  deduc- 
tion from  her  conduct  in  the  period  1899-1901,  when 
the  Empress  cast  herself  at  the  feet  of  the  Boxer 
leaders,  awaiting  their  promised  miracles,  and  ignores 
the  rest  of  her  life.  No  doubt  it  is  necessary  to 
discount  a  little  the  very  glowing  estimates  of  her 
character  which  some  of  her  visitors,  especially  three 
American  ladies,  Mrs.  Conger,  Miss  Carl,  and  Mrs. 
Headland,2  have  published  to  the  world.  What  they 
were  inclined  to  attribute  to  superabundance  of  ami- 
ability, we  may  more  safely  put  down  chiefly  to 
wonderful  tact.  Nevertheless  Mrs.  Conger  and  her 
two  countrywomen  are  certainly  nearer  the  truth  than 

1  Rev.  A.  H.  Smith,  China  in  Convu/sion,  p.  28.    Mr.  Smith  has 
no  approval  to  bestow  on  "  this  touching  interview,"  as  he  derisively 
calls  it. 

2  In  her  contributions  to  her  husband's  book. 


202   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

those  writers  who  have  held  Tze-hi  up  to  hatred  as 
a  cynical  and  hypocritical  anti-foreigner,  lying  in 
order  to  lull  her  visitors  into  a  false  sense  of  security 
and  so  make  them  her  easier  prey.  Of  all  imaginary 
portraits  of  the  Empress  Dowager  of  China,  this  is 
surely  the  least  deserving  of  acceptance. 

It  was  natural  that  the  very  gracious  welcome 
accorded  to  the  Legation  ladies  should  arouse  hopes 
that,  after  all,  the  reaction  against  the  Reform  pro- 
gramme planned  by  the  Emperor  in  conjunction  with 
Kang  Yu-wei  did  not  mean  a  long  set-back  to  the 
Empire's  progress  and  a  new  era  of  bad  relations 
between  China  and  the  foreigners.  These  hopes,  it 
should  be  mentioned,  were  not  shared  by  the  majority 
of  European  merchants  and  journalists  resident  in 
the  coast-ports.  They  had  put  their  confidence  in  the 
Emperor — if  in  any  one  at  all  in  China — and  looked 
on  the  Empress  Dowager  with  most  unfriendly  eyes, 
denouncing  any  attempts  which  she  made  in  the 
direction  of  liberal  government  as  "  paper  reforms," 
and  drawing  insistent  attention  to  the  presence  of 
notorious  reactionaries  among  her  chosen  adminis- 
trators. And  while  they  could  point  the  finger  of 
scorn  at  Yunglu  (unduly  condemned  by  foreigners,  it 
is  true),  a  towering  political  figure  at  Peking  and,  in 
addition,  in  almost  full  control  of  all  the  effective 
forces,  military  and  naval,  in  North  China  ;  Li  Ping- 
heng,  degraded  on  Germany's  demand  from  the 
governorship  of  Shantung,  now  commander-in-chief 
of  the  army  in  the  Yangtse  region  ;  Kangyi,  now 


BEFORE   THE    STORM  203 

made  Inspector  of  Fortifications  throughout  the 
Empire  ;  Yu-hien,  an  arrogant,  ignorant,  and  foreign- 
hating  Manchu,  promoted  from  the  post  of  Tartar 
General  at  Nanking  to  the  governorship  of  Shan- 
tung ;  Yulu,  another  anti-foreign  Manchu,  made 
Grand  Councillor  in  1898 — while  they  could 
point  at  such  examples  of  her  choice  of  instru- 
ments, ignoring  the  favour  bestowed  by  her  at 
the  same  time  on  men  like  Yuan  Shi-kai,  Chang 
Chih-tung,  Liu  Kun-yi,  and  such  progressive  Man- 
chus  as  Tuan-fang  (who  has  since  visited  Europe  as  a 
member  of  the  Constitutional  Mission  a  few  years 
ago)  and  Kwei-chun,  it  was  easy  for  them  to  make 
out  a  strong  case  against  her.  Like  many  other 
sovereigns,  Tze-hi  had  to  suffer  in  general  estimation 
for  some  of  the  company  which  she  kept. 

Unhappily,  too,  anti-foreign  outrages  continued  to 
occur.  In  the  midst  of  his  Reform  Programme  in 
July,  1898,  the  Emperor  had  issued  an  edict  calling 
on  the  high  provincial  authorities  to  be  stricter  in 
their  enforcement  of  the  regard  for  missionaries  and 
their  converts  which  past  treaties  had  enjoined.  The 
fall  of  the  Emperor  had  been  the  signal  for  fresh 
disturbances,  as  was  to  be  expected.  As  early  as 
September  I3th  there  was  an  attack  on  some  missions 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  Chungking.  At  the  begin- 
ning of  November  a  China  Inland  Missionary,  the 
Rev.  W.  S.  Fleming,  was  murdered  in  Kweichow 
province.  In  January  a  French  pfriest,  Father  Vic- 
torin,  was  very  brutally  tortured  and  slain  in  Hupeh 


204  GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

and  his  remains  were  publicly  exhibited  at  Ichang. 
In  the  same  month  Szechuan  provided  one  of  its 
periodical  risings  against  foreigners.  Punishment 
overtook  some  of  the  guilty  parties  eventually,  but 
in  the  circumstances  it  was  scarcely  a  happy  step  on 
the  part  of  the  Legations  to  dismiss  their  guards, 
brought  up  to  Peking  in  October,  in  the  spring  of 
1899.  To  say  the  least,  this  measure  showed  a  want 
of  appreciation  of  the  influence  which  the  reactionaries 
at  the  capital  had  over  the  provinces. 

Soon  after  the  opening  of  1899  the  aged  Li  Hung- 
chang  was  summoned  back  to  Peking  and  given  an 
audience  by  his  mistress.  It  was  noted  that  he  was 
treated  with  extreme  consideration,  and  that  after  he 
had  performed  the  proper  kowtow  he  was  given  the 
privilege  of  a  stool  to  sit  upon  in  the  Imperial 
presence,  an  extraordinary  favour.  Whether  there 
was  any  peculiar  significance  in  the  recall  of  Li 
Hung-chang  from  his  Yellow  River  work  was  not 
known.  But  certainly  a  change  was  soon  manifest  in 
China's  foreign  policy.  There  became  visible  a  firm- 
ness of  purpose  which  ought  to  have  been  welcomed 
by  the  friends  of  China.  Kwanghsu's  last  year  of 
power  had  witnessed  a  lamentable  spoliation  of  the 
Empire  by  the  Western  Powers.  The  Empress 
Dowager  on  her  resumption  of  rule  found  them  all 
pressing  hard  for  fresh  concessions  and  marking  out 
for  themselves  provinces  as  their  "  spheres  of  in- 
fluence." Russia,  Germany,  France,  and  Great 
Britain  were  by  no  means  content  with  what  they  had 


BEFORE   THE   STORM  205 

already  got,  France  indeed  threatening  a  naval 
demonstration  if  her  demands  both  at  Shanghai  and 
in  Szechuan  were  not  granted.  Portugal  wanted  her 
territory  at  Macao  extended,  Belgium  asked  for  a 
concession  at  Hankow,  Japan  was  believed  to  have 
designs  on  Fuhkien,  and  Spain  was  thought  to  be 
seeking  for  the  opportunity  of  putting  in  a  claim. 
But  it  was  Italy  who  for  the  moment  gave  the  most 
trouble.  In  the  early  months  of  1899  she  presented 
a  request  for  a  "  lease  "  of  Sanmoon  Bay,  in  Chekiang 
province,  south  of  Shanghai,  on  similar  terms  to  the 
leases  of  Kiaochau,  Port  Arthur,  etc.  So  forcibly 
did  her  representative  state  his  case  that  at  the  end  of 
March  the  common  talk  in  Peking  was  of  war  with 
Italy.  For  the  Chinese  Government  had  developed 
a  backbone.  The  Empress  Dowager  sent  out  a  secret 
edict  to  all  the  viceroys  and  high  officials  of  the 
maritime  provinces,  commanding  them  to  resist  by 
force  any  attempt  at  an  armed  landing  by  foreigners. 
The  Tsungli  Yamen  showed  no  disposition  to  listen 
to  the  Italian  demands.  Had  Italy  desired  war,  or 
been  in  a  position  to  wage  it  against  China,  she  could 
have  had  it.  She  contented  herself,  however,  with 
pressing  her  claim  diplomatically.  But,  although  at 
the  end  of  November  the  position  was  still  acute, 
China  did  not  yield  an  inch,  and  at  last  the  matter 
dropped. 

During  this  war-scare  one  of  the  Empress's 
cherished  schemes  was  for  an  offensive  and  defensive 
alliance  between  China  and  Japan,  who  had  shown  a 


206   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

friendly  disposition  when  she  returned  to  her  former 
enemy  the  remains  of  the  old  Peiyang  or  Northern 
fleet,  captured  in  1894-5.  A  mission,  indeed,  was 
actually  sent  to  Japan,  whose  object  was  believed  to 
be  the  conclusion  of  such  an  alliance  ;  but  for  some 
reason,  perhaps  because  its  members  were  not  men  of 
much  ability,  nothing  came  of  it.  China  was  thrown 
upon  her  own  resources  if  she  was  to  resist  the  plot 
for  her  dismemberment,  of  which  Europeans  were 
now  talking  with  the  utmost  freedom. 

In  estimating  the  folly  of  the  Empress  Dowager 
in  throwing  herself  completely  into  the  hands  of  the 
"patriots"  who  caused  the  great  outbreak  of  1900, 
it  is  only  fair  to  point  out  that  she  seems  to  have  first 
ascertained  that  there  was  no  hope  of  China  finding 
any  protector  from  without  to  save  her  from  the 
encroachments  of  the  greedy  Western  nations,  that 
she  must  rely  wholly  on  her  own  resources  if  she  was 
not  to  be  parcelled  out  into  "  spheres  of  influence  " 
or  entirely  "  broken  up."  Now  the  Reformers,  with 
all  their  enthusiasm  for  the  ideas  of  the  West,  had 
entirely  failed  to  check  the  aggressions  of  the  people 
whose  civilization  they  wished  China  to  admire.  Li 
Hung-chang  could  suggest  nothing  better  than  rely- 
ing on  Russia,  most  Asiatic  of  the  European  nations, 
as  a  protector  against  the  rest ;  but  Russia's  price  was 
tremendously  high,  and  her  help  only  threatened  the 
Empire  with  annexation  by  one  Power  in  the  place  of 
several. 

To  whom  could  Tze-hi  turn  ?     There  came  for- 


BEFORE   THE    STORM  207 

ward  in  her  hour  of  need  men  ready  to  promise 
everything — the  protection  of  Heaven,  the  active 
co-operation  of  the  spirits  in  a  Holy  War,  the  sweep- 
ing away  of  the  intruders  into  the  sea  whence  they 
came,  the  restoration  of  the  old  glories  of  the 
Celestial  Empire.  She  was  an  intensely  superstitious 
as  well  as  a  fiercely  patriotic  woman.  She  believed 
the  gigantic  promises  and  trusted  herself  to  the 
"  Boxers  "  and  their  heavenly  allies.  She  "  mounted 
the  tiger,"  heedless  of  the  national  proverb  that  it  is 
hard  to  get  off  when  you  are  riding  upon  that 
animal. 

Yet  in  July,  1899,  she  was  decreeing  the  re- 
organization of  the  finances  of  the  Empire  and  the 
abolition  of  the  corrupt  system  of  "  squeezes  "  in  the 
provinces,  and  was  commonly  reported  to  be  studying 
Reform  literature  ! 

In  the  task  of  correcting  provincial  corruption  she 
employed  Kangyi,  although  he  had  asked  her  rather 
to  give  him  the  Viceroyalty  of  the  Liang  Kwang. 
She  appointed  him  Special  Commissioner  of  the 
Imperial  Revenues,  and  was  justified  by  the  fact  that 
he  raised  enormous  sums  of  money  for  the  Exchequer, 
gaining  him  his  English  nickname  of  "  Lord  High 
Extortioner."  This  furnished  his  mistress  with  a 
very  useful  abundance  of  funds  when  the  quarrel 
with  the  outer  Powers  broke  out,  and  she  was  accused 
(perhaps  with  some  reason)  of  having  this  in  her 
mind  when  she  decided  to  send  him  to  the  provinces. 

In  the  summer  of  1899   rumour  was  very  busy 


208   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

with  the  intrigues  at  Court.  The  Emperor  was  still 
believed  to  be  ill  and  in  danger  of  a  sudden  death. 
It  was  said  that  the  Empress  Dowager,  too,  was  in 
fear  of  poison,  and  that  she  had  added  to  her 
favourite  Yunglu's  duties  that  of  superintendence  of 
her  kitchen.  Yunglu  was  reported  to  be  on  very 
bad  terms  with  Prince  Ching,  whose  position  as 
Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Peking  Field  Forces  was 
the  only  serious  check  upon  his  predominance  in  all 
military  matters  in  the  North  of  China.  At  the  end 
of  August  Peking  gossip  made  the  rivals  on  the 
point  of  open  strife,  Ching  having  a  strong  backing 
among  the  Imperial  princes,  jealous  at  the  position  of 
Yunglu,  who  was  only  one  of  them  by  his  relation- 
ship to  the  Dowager.  If  an  actual  fight  did  not 
break  out,  at  least  the  struggle  between  the  partisans 
of  the  two  '  great  men  was  very  bitter,  and  the 
Censors  belonging  to  either  party  were  busy  with 
memorials  denouncing  their  leader's  enemy.  "  So 
frequent  have  their  memorials  been,"  one  of  the 
Chinese  papers  published  in  the  coast-ports1  amusingly 
states,  "  that  they  have  actually  bored  the  Empress 
Dowager,  who  recently  showed  her  displeasure  by 
commanding  the  Grand  Council  to  reprimand  Prince 
Ching's  head  Censor.  Little  time  was  given,  how- 
ever, to  the  friends  of  Yunglu  to  rejoice  at  this 
proof  of  the  Empress  Dowager's  leaning  toward  her 
nephew's  party,  for  not  long  after,  at  an  audience  of 
Yunglu  before  the  Empress  Dowager  in  the  Grand 

1  The  Universal  Gazette,  September,  1899. 


PRINCE  CHING  (YIKWANG) 


p.  ao3 


BEFORE   THE   STORM  209 

Council  Chamber,  she  pointedly  asked  him  who  was 
Yu  Cheng-ko.  Knowing  that  his  aunt  was  aware  of 
the  antecedents  of  this  Censor,  Yunglu  boldly  con- 
fessed that  two  years  ago  when  the  Reformer  Kang 
Yu-wei  went  up  to  Peking  from  Canton  for  the 
Doctor's  degree  at  the  Triennial  Examinations,  Yu 
Cheng-ko  had  charge  of  the  ward  in  which  Kang 
was  writing  his  essays,  and  that  it  was  he  who  passed 
the  Reformer's  papers  and  strongly  recommended 
the  bestowal  of  the  Doctor's  or  chinshih  degree  on  the 
candidate.  When  Yunglu  had  explained  this,  the 
Empress  Dowager  simply  smiled  at  her  nephew,  and 
although  she  said  nothing  everyone  in  the  Chamber 
knew  perfectly  well  that  she  meant  Yunglu  to  feel 
that  since  he  was  the  chief  instrument  in  destroying 
Kang's  party  there  was  no  love  lost  between  them 
and  their  destroyer,  and  that  it  struck  her  as  odd  that 
he  should  keep  at  his  side  one  of  Kang's  friends. 
.  .  .  Although  both  parties  have  received  a  rebuff 
people  seem  to  think  that  Yunglu  is  really  more  in 
favour  than  his  rival." 

In  September  it  was  reported  that  a  conspiracy  had 
been  discovered  among  the  Manchu  Bannermen  to 
make  a  clean  sweep  of  the  Dowager,  Yunglu,  Prince 
Ching,  and  all  those  at  present  in  power,  and  to  re- 
place them  by  others  who  thought  they  ought  to 
have  had  a  share  in  the  spoils  of  office.  The 
Dowager,  it  was  said,  was  much  alarmed,  and  went 
nowhere  without  an  escort  of  fifty  eunuchs,  armed 
with  Mauser  rifles,  and  thirty  picked  eunuch  swords- 


210   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

men.  It  was  remarked  about  this  time  that  Kwanghsu, 
who  was  seen  in  public  on  September  22nd  on  his 
way  to  the  Temple  of  Heaven  to  pray  for  rain,  was 
receiving  greater  freedom  and  was  encouraged  by  his 
aunt  to  speak  at  the  meetings  of  the  Grand  Council, 
although  since  his  deposition  he  had  been  regularly 
a  silent  witness  of  proceedings  there.  But  still,  at 
an  audience  to  the  Russian  Minister  toward  the  end 
of  October,  it  was  the  Empress  Dowager  who  sat 
upon  the  principal  throne,  the  Emperor  being  on  a 
lower  seat  beneath  her.  There  was  obviously  no 
intention  of  restoring  him  to  his  former  position. 
Indeed,  the  apparent  encouragement  given  to  him  in 
the  autumn  of  1899  was  only  the  prelude  to  a  cruel 
blow  in  the  opening  month  of  the  following  year. 
The  real  designs  of  Tze-hi  with  regard  to  her 
nephew  are  difficult  to  fathom.  At  times  she  seemed 
to  relent  in  her  severity  toward  him,  only  to  deal 
with  him  more  rigorously,  we  might  almost  say 
vindictively,  immediately  afterwards.  Nothing  but 
caprice  appears  to  explain  her  conduct  satisfactorily. 
It  was  as  though  now  and  again  she  recalled  that  he 
was  the  same  little  child,  her  sister's  son,  whom  she 
had  carried  out  of  his  nursery  into  the  snow  to  make 
of  him  an  Emperor,  and  then  suddenly  recollected  that 
he  was  the  patron  and  friend  of  Kang  Yu-wei,  whose 
triumph  might  have  meant  her  death,  and  would 
certainly  have  involved  her  political  extinction. 

In  estimating  the  motives  of  the  men  and  women 
of  China  there  is  too  great  a  tendency  to  assume 


BEFORE   THE   STORM  211 

that  they  must  be  different  from  those  of  other  men 
and  women  in  similar  positions.  Yet  in  no  way  can 
the  maxim  of  Confucius,  "  Under  the  Four  Heavens 
all  men  are  brothers,"  more  truly  be  applied  than  in 
the  study  of  motives  in  mankind,  East  and  West. 
It  is  unnecessary  to  seek  for  the  "  topseyturveydom  " 
which  Europeans  delight  to  find  in  China,  or  to  talk 
of  "the  inscrutable  East."  The  East  is  no  more 
inscrutable  than  the  West.  But  all  human  nature 
becomes  inscrutable  if  one  begins  by  rejecting  the 
simple  explanations  on  account  of  their  simplicity. 


CHAPTER    XV 
THE   EMPRESS   AND   THE   BOXERS 

T?OR  the  useful  term  "  Boxers,"  applied  to  the 
great  society  which  made  the  attempt  in  1900 
to  free  China  from  the  obnoxious  presence  of 
foreigners,  we  have  to  thank  the  missionary  writers. 
The  Chinese  name  of  this  society  was  /  Ho  Kwan? 
literally  "  The  Patriotic  Harmony  Fists."  The  name 
was  not  new,  a  Boxer  organization  having  existed  in 
Southern  Shantung  early  in  the  nineteenth  century, 
while  some  historians  have  professed  to  be  able  to 
trace  it  two  thousand  years  back.  The  identity 
of  name,  however,  is  not  a  proof  of  the  affiliation 
of  the  ancient  and  modern  Boxers,  the  latter  in  their 
tenets  most  resembling  the  "  White  Lily  "  sect,  most 
famous  of  all  the  innumerable  secret  societies  in  which 
the  annals  of  China  abound.  The  White  Lilies, 
to  whom  was  largely  due  the  fall  of  the  Mongol 
dynasty  and  the  establishment  of  the  Mings,  were 
militant  Buddhists,2  and  so  were  the  Boxers,  though 
the  word  "  Buddhist "  must  be  understood,  of  course, 
purely  in  its  Chinese  sense,  there  being  exceedingly 

1  Or  I  Ho  Chiian  in  Pekingese. 

2  Professor  Parker  sees  in  the  Boxer  movement  "  a  protest  by  the 
spirit  of  militant  Buddhism  against  the  spirit  of  militant  Christianity  " 
(China,  p.  291). 

212 


THE   EMPRESS    AND   THE   BOXERS   213 

little  left  of  the  teachings  of  the  Buddha.  The 
Boxers'  pantheon  included  a  very  miscellaneous 
assemblage  of  gods  and  goddesses,  with  a  strengthen- 
ing of  canonized  heroes  from  the  ancient  history  of 
China.  The  souls  of  these  dead  worthies  were 
claimed  by  the  Boxers  as  their  active  allies,  their 
banners  being  inscribed  with  the  words  :  "  Spirits 
and  Fists  give  Mutual  Aid."  A  great  feature  of  the 
movement  was  the  liability  of  the  adherents  to  cata- 
leptic trances  and  fits,  naturally  enough  attributed 
by  some  of  the  missionaries  to  demoniacal  possession. 
Magic  incantations  were  freely  used,  by  which  it  was 
believed  that  the  devotee  could  be  rendered  proof 
against  wounds.  Nothing  seemed  able  to  shake  the 
faith  in  this,  not  even  when  Yuan  Shi-kai  as  Governor 
of  Shantung  invited  a  number  of  Boxer  chiefs  to 
dinner  and,  after  discussing  with  them  their  invulner- 
ability, lined  them  up  in  his  courtyard  and  had  them 
shot. 

Another  striking  note  of  the  movement  was  the 
way  in  which  it  attracted  women  and  children. 
Women  of  the  "  Red  Lantern "  society  were 
prominent  in  Boxer  demonstrations ;  small  boys 
formed  themselves  into  companies  and  drilled  in 
imitation  of  their  seniors,  while  bands  of  children 
of  both  sexes  marched  at  the  head  of  processions  and 
even  rushed  into  battle  later. 

The  effect  of  the  Boxer  claims,  supported  by  a  few 
spurious  miracles,  upon  the  ignorant  peasantry  was 
lamentable.  As  in  the  case  of  the  Taipings,  so  now 


214   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

panic  spread  far  and  wide,  and  it  was  considered 
hopeless  to  withstand  those  who  could  control  super- 
natural agencies.  Even  in  Peking,  when  the  move- 
ment got  so  far,  the  wildest  credulity  prevailed.  A 
Boxer  was  believed  to  have  set  fire  to  the  Chartered 
Bank  building  by  pointing  his  finger  at  it ! 

In  Shantung  province,  which  was  one  of  the  hot- 
beds of  trouble,  the  beginning  of  the  agitation  was 
due  to  a  body  called  the  Ta  Tao  Hui,  or  "  Big  Sword 
Society,"  which  may  have  been  a  direct  descendant 
of  the  "  White  Lilies,"  but  gradually  amalgamated 
with  the  Boxers.  According  to  an  early  proclamation 
by  Yuan  Shi-kai  in  Shantung,  the  Big  Swords  came 
into  existence  in  that  province  in  the  middle  of  1896. 
They  are  said  to  have  been  at  first  sworn  foes  not 
only  of  foreigners  and  converts,  but  also  of  the 
Manchu  dynasty,  though  this  is  difficult  to  reconcile 
with  the  story  of  the  society's  foundation  by  the 
infamous  Yu-hien,  a  Manchu  himself  and  soon  after- 
wards selected  for  favour  by  the  Empress  Dowager. 
The  Big  Swords,  at  any  rate,  when  they  became 
prominent,  had  adopted  the  Boxer  motto  :  "  Support 
the  Tsing  Dynasty,  Exterminate  the  Foreigners  !  " 

Although  the  mischief  started  before,  it  was  the 
overthrow  of  the  Reformers  which  gave  the  impetus 
to  Boxerism.  Great  distress  in  the  Yellow  River 
region,  consequent  on  the  floods,  encouraged  anarchy  ; 
and  when  the  villagers  organized  themselves,  as  it 
was  quite  legal  for  them  to  do,  into  armed  bands 
to  cope  with  the  outlaws  who  were  wandering  about, 


THE   EMPRESS   AND   THE   BOXERS  215 

it  soon  became  evident  that  their  activities  would  not 
cease  there.  Attacks  on  missionaries  and  converts 
increased  in  number,  and  anti-foreign  placards 
appeared  everywhere.  As  became  evident  later,  from 
the  identity  of  wording  in  so  many  of  these  placards, 
the  Boxer  organization  was  very  complete.  All  the 
old  charges  against  Christians,  of  child-murder,  etc., 
were  raked  up,  coupled  with  protests  against  the 
violation  of  Feng-shui  by  railroads  and  telegraphs. 
Here  is  a  typical  Boxer  proclamation  on  the  latter 
subject  : — 

"  The  iron  roads  and  fire-carriages  disturb  the 
Earth  Dragon  and  destroy  the  good  influences  of  the 
soil.  The  red  liquid  which  drips  from  the  iron 
serpent  [the  rust  from  the  telegraph-wires]  is  nothing 
less  than  the  blood  of  the  outraged  spirits  of  the  air. 
Ills  beyond  remedy  overtake  us  when  these  crimson 
drops  fall  near  us." 

Disturbances  were  particularly  frequent  in  Shan- 
tung, Anhui,  and  Kiangsu,  and  it  was  found  that, 
while  the  indemnities  demanded  by  foreigners  were 
paid,  the  officials  were  clearly  interested  in  shielding 
the  guilty  parties,  even  if  they  could  not  be  shown 
to  be  implicated  themselves.  In  Shantung,  where 
Yu-hien  was  appointed  Governor  in  the  spring  of 
1899,  matters  seemed  to  have  come  to  a  crisis  when 
the  Germans  felt  compelled  to  despatch  a  punitive 
expedition  inland  from  Kiaochau  in  revenge  for  an 
attack  on  two  of  their  nationals  in  June.  But  Yu-hien 
found  the  indemnity,  and  in  response  to  a  telegram 


216   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

from  the  Viceroy  of  Chihli,  instigated  by  the  threats 
of  foreigners,  collected  some  troops  to  deal  with  the 
secret  society  men.  As,  however,  after  the  first 
collision  between  the  two  parties,  resulting  in  the 
death  of  ninety-eight  Boxers  or  Big  Swords,  he  dis- 
missed the  commander  of  his  troops,  it  was  plain 
with  whom  his  sympathies  lay. 

Matters  grew  steadily  worse,  and  at  the  beginning 
of  December,  1899,  the  United  States  Minister  at 
Peking  received  a  telegram  from  American  mission- 
aries in  Shantung  stating  that  the  rising  covered 
"  twenty  counties."  A  protest  to  the  Tsungli  Yamen 
produced  orders  to  Yu-hien  to  give  his  protection 
to  foreigners.  But  the  regulars  refused  to  attack  the 
rioters,  and  the  official  placards  were  torn  down  as 
soon  as  they  were  posted  up.  The  Legations  made 
a  very  strong  protest,  in  reply  to  which  Yu-hien  was 
removed  from  his  Governorship  on  December  26th 
and  ordered  to  Peking.  On  his  arrival  the  Empress 
Dowager  received  him  in  audience,  appointed  him 
Governor  of  Shansi,  and  presented  him  with  a  scroll 
bearing  the  character  for  "  Happiness  "  written  with 
her  own  hand. 

Yuan  Shi-kai  succeeded  Yu-hien  in  Shantung,  and 
before  he  had  properly  taken  over  the  reins  was 
confronted  with  the  brutal  murder  of  the  English 
missionary,  the  Rev.  S.  M.  Brooks,  at  Taianfu.  He 
sought  out  the  murderers  with  commendable  vigour, 
and  otherwise  comported  himself  admirably  in  his 
dealings  with  the  Boxers,  within  the  limits  of  his 


THE   EMPRESS   AND   THE   BOXERS   217 

power.  But  he  could  do  little,  for  the  provincials 
were  convinced  that  Peking  was  behind  the  Boxer 
movement. 

Their  conviction  was  correct.  The  process  of 
conversion  of  the  Empress  Dowager  had  gone  on 
apace,  aided  largely  no  doubt  by  the  ever-growing 
menaces  of  the  Western  Powers.  On  November 
2 ist,  1899,  when  Italy's  pressure  for  the  lease  of 
Sanmoon  Bay  is  known  to  have  been  very  strong,  we 
find  her  addressing  a  secret  decree  to  the  Viceroys 
and  high  provincial  officials,  civil  and  military,  in 
which  she  picturesquely  states  that  the  foreigners 
"  cast  upon  us  looks  of  tiger-like  greed,  hustling 
each  other  in  their  endeavours  to  be  the  first  to  seize 
upon  our  innermost  territories.  They  think  that 
China,  having  neither  money  nor  troops,  would  never 
venture  to  go  to  war  with  them."  The  decree  goes 
on  to  denounce  the  evil  habit  among  the  high  officials 
of  believing  that  every  case  of  international  dispute 
must  eventually  be  "  amicably  arranged,"  wherefore 
they  make  no  preparations  to  resist  hostile  aggression. 
The  command  is  now  given  that  when  such  officials 
find  that  nothing  short  of  war  will  settle  matters  they 
must  do  their  duty.  "  Never  should  the  word  Peace 
fall  from  the  mouths  of  our  high  officials,  nor  should 
they  even  allow  it  to  take  its  place  for  a  moment 
within  their  breasts.  .  .  .  Let  no  one  think  of  making 
peace,  but  let  each  strive  to  preserve  his  ancestral 
home  and  graves  from  destruction  and  spoliation  at 
the  ruthless  hands  of  the  invader." 


2i8    GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

Following  the  Empress's  decree  came  a  recom- 
mendation from  the  Tsungli  Yamen  to  the  Viceroys 
and  Governors  that  she  and  the  Emperor  expected 
them  to  resist  forcible  aggression  without  telegraphing 
to  Peking  for  orders. 

It  cannot  be  said  that  there  was  anything  unjustifi- 
able about  these  instructions  from  the  Empress 
Dowager  to  her  representatives  in  the  provinces. 
She  did  not  accuse  the  foreign  Powers  of  anything  of 
which  they  were  not  guilty,  judged  by  the  utterances 
of  their  own  writers.  But  unfortunately,  while 
recognizing  that  matters  had  come  to  a  desperate 
pass,  she  could  see  no  allies  more  worthy  of  being 
called  in  to  the  aid  of  herself  and  her  representatives 
than  a  horde  of  ignorant  fanatics.  She  had  in  her 
campaign  of  vengeance  against  Kang  Yu-wei  made 
bitter  enemies  of  Young  China,  and  in  spite  of  the 
report  of  her  study  of  Reform  literature  in  July, 
1899,  she  was  seen  at  the  end  of  the  year  sending 
Li  Hung-chang  to  the  Viceroyalty  of  the  Liang 
Kwang  with  an  admonition  to  do  all  he  could  to 
capture  Kang  and  other  fugitive  Reformers  ;  bidding 
Liu  Kun-yi  on  his  appointment  to  the  Kiangnan  to 
wipe  out  the  Reform  Party  ;  and  as  late  as  March 
9th,  1900,  issuing  an  edict  for  the  arrest  of  about 
fifty  people  in  Peking  whose  only  known  offence  was 
sympathy  with  Reform. 

Failing  any  hope  of  reconciling  Young  China,  she 
might  still  have  put  her  confidence  in  the  Moderates. 
This,  however,  was  not  a  very  attractive  policy, 


THE   EMPRESS   AND   THE   BOXERS   219 

seeing  that  there  was  not  one  strong  Moderate  party 
to  whom  she  could  appeal.  Yunglu  might  in  a  sense 
be  considered  a  Moderate,  the  old  Li  Hung-chang 
was  one,  Yuan  Shi-kai,  Chang  Chih-tung,  and  Liu 
Kun-yi  had  even  more  right  to  be  called  so.  But  Li 
could  only  advise  her  still  to  rely  on  Russia,  while 
the  three  last-named  were  wary  men,  adepts  at 
trimming  their  sails  to  the  breeze,  and  not  given  to 
making  large  promises  where  they  did  not  feel 
sure  of  success.  Moreover,  their  acceptability  to 
foreigners  may  scarcely  have  seemed  a  recom- 
mendation when  the  problem  was  how  to  check 
foreign  aggression. 

The  only  people  who  were  willing  to  guarantee  to 
the  Empress  Dowager  success  against  the  foreigners 
were  the  patrons  of  the  Boxers.  Owing  to  the 
extent  to  which  the  Manchus,  including  numbers  of 
the  Imperial  princes,  took  it  up,  the  Boxer  movement 
has  sometimes  been  called  Manchu.  This  it  certainly 
was  not,  in  its  origin,  although  it  is  true  that  the 
Manchus  exploited  it  to  the  fullest  possible  extent. 
Perhaps  they  were  not  altogether  unwise  in  doing  so, 
as  if  it  had  remained  a  purely  Chinese  movement 
it  might  well  have  included  among  its  patriotic 
objects  the  setting  up  of  a  Chinese  dynasty  on 
the  throne.  The  Imperial  clansmen  naturally  pre- 
ferred to  ride  the  storm  rather  than  risk  falling 
before  it. 

The  man  who  is  supposed  to  have  had  whatever 
credit  attaches  to  the  introduction  of  the  Boxers  to  the 


220   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

notice  of  the  Empress  Dowager  is  Prince  Tuan,1  son 
of  Hienfung's  brother,  Yitsung,  who  was  adopted 
from  the  family  of  the  Emperor  Taokwang  into  that 
of  his  childless  brother,  the  Prince  of  Tun.  Tuan 
himself  was  adopted  as  heir  to  Prince  Juimin,  son  of 
a  brother  of  Kiaking.  Both  his  father  and  himself 
having  been  removed  by  adoption  from  senior  into 
junior  branches,  the  result  was  to  keep  them  out  of 
touch  with  foreigners  and  foreign  affairs — in  the  case 
of  Tuan,  until  the  Empress  Dowager  made  him  a 
member  of  the  Tsungli  Yamen,  the  Foreign  Office, 
of  which  he  became  President  in  June,  1900  ! — and 
make  them  bigoted  Conservatives.  Tuan,  as  far  as 
could  be  ascertained  during  his  period  of  power,  was 
an  ill-educated,  violent,  and  ambitious  man.  When 
he  first  attracted  the  Empress's  attention  is  unknown. 
In  the  autumn  of  1899  he  was  permitted  to  enlist  a 
force  of  ten  thousand  Manchu  soldiers,  who  were 
known  as  the  HusMng,  the  "  Tiger  Genii "  or 
"  Glorified  Tigers."  His  influence  grew  very  rapidly, 
and  when  the  Empress  began  to  turn  more  and  more 
toward  the  reactionaries  Tuan  was  the  one  who 
struck  her  as  most  useful  for  her  ends.  In  his  turn 
he  put  forward  the  claim  of  that  patriotic  association 
the  /  Ho  Kwan,  whose  tenets  he  admired  and  whose 
supernatural  claims  he  was  fully  prepared  to  believe, 

1  Tuan,  if  he  had  any  pretensions  to  be  a  scholar,  ought  to  have 
remembered  the  saying  of  Mencius  :  "  The  crime  of  him  who  aids  the 
wickedness  of  his  ruler  is  small ;  but  the  crime  of  him  who  anticipates 
and  excites  that  wickedness  is  great." 


THE   EMPRESS   AND   THE   BOXERS   221 

having   allowed   them    to   give   exhibitions  of  their 
miracles  in  the  courtyard  of  his  palace  in  Peking. 

Tuan's  praise  of  the  Boxers  was  supported  by  other 
Imperial  princes,  like  Prince  Chuang,  and  by  officials 
such  as  Kang-yi  and  Yu-hien,  who  made  their  way 
into  the  favour  of  Tze-hi.  A  very  remarkable  interview 
between  the  Empress  and  a  certain  Censor,  Wang  by 
name,  is  reported  by  the  Peking  native  correspondent 
of  the  North  China  Daily  News 1 : — 

"  The  subject  of  the  Boxers  having  come  up,  the 
Empress  Dowager  said  to  the  Censor  :  *  You  are  a 
native  of  this  province  and  so  ought  to  know.  What 
do  you  think  of  the  Boxers  in  Chihli  ;  do  you  think 
that  when  the  time  comes  for  action  they  will  really 
join  the  troops  in  fighting  the  Foreign  Devils  ?'  *I 
am  certain  of  it,  Your  Majesty.  Moreover,  the  tenets 
taught  by  the  society  are  :  Protect  to  the  death  the 
Heavenly  Dynasty,  and  death  to  the  Devils.'  For 
your  servant's  own  part,  so  deeply  do  I  believe  in  the 
destiny  of  the  society  to  crush  the  devils,  that  young 
and  old  of  your  servant's  family  are  now  practising 
the  incantations  of  the  Boxers,  every  one  of  us  having 
joined  the  Society  to  Protect  the  Heavenly  Dynasty 
and  drive  the  devils  into  the  sea.  Had  I  the  power 
given  me,  I  would  willingly  lead  the  Boxers  in  the 
van  of  the  avenging  army,  and  before  that  time  do 
all  I  can  to  assist  in  organizing  and  arming  them.' 
The  Empress  nodded  her  head  in  approval,  and  after 

1  May  loth,  1900.    The  date  of  the  interview  is  not  given,  but  it 
was  before  the  Empress  Dowager  left  for  Iho  Park  this  spring. 


222    GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

ruminating  in  her  mind,  cried  :  'Aye  !  It  is  a  grand 
society!  But  I  am  afraid  that,  having  no  experienced 
men  at  their  head  just  now,  these  Boxers  will  act 
rashly  and  get  the  Government  into  trouble  with 
these  foreign  devils,  before  everything  is  ready.' 
Then,  after  another  pause  :  *  That's  it.  These  Boxers 
must  have  some  responsible  men  in  Chihli  and 
Shantung  to  guide  their  conduct.'  The  next  morn- 
ing a  decree  was  issued  naming  this  Censor,  Wang, 
Governor  of  Peking." 

Convinced  apparently  by  the  many  representations 
made  to  her  about  the  merits  of  /  Ho  Kwan,  the 
Empress  took  a  decided  step  in  support  of  the  move- 
ment. The  Legations  had  been  pressing  for  a  decree 
against  seditious  societies.  On  January  nth,  1900, 
she  produced  one,  in  which  she  alluded  to  the  de- 
mand for  the  suppression  of  such,  and  went  on  to 
draw  a  distinction  between  the  different  kinds  of 
societies.  "  When  peaceful  and  law-abiding  people," 
she  said,  "  practise  themselves  in  mechanical  arts  for 
the  preservation  of  themselves  and  their  families,  or 
when  they  combine  in  village  fraternities  for  mutual 
protection,  this  is  in  accordance  with  the  public- 
spirited  principle  enjoined  by  Mencius  of  *  keeping 
mutual  watch  and  giving  mutual  aid.'  Some  local 
authorities,  when  a  case  arises,  disregard  this  dis- 
tinction, and  listening  to  false  and  idle  rumours 
against  all  alike  as  being  seditious  associations,  mete 
out  indiscriminate  slaughter.  The  result  of  this 
failure  to  distinguish  between  good  and  evil  is  that 


THE   EMPRESS    AND   THE   BOXERS   223 

men's  minds  are  filled  with  fear  and  doubt.  This 
proves  not  that  the  people  are  lawless,  but  that  the 
administration  is  bad." 

This  decree  entirely  failed  to  please  the  foreign 
residents  in  China,  who  looked  upon  it  as  "  the 
Boxers'  bulwark  and  charter."1  The  representatives 
of  the  Great  Powers,  with  the  notable  exception  of 
Russia,  decided  to  call  for  a  decree  specifically  sup- 
pressing both  the  Boxer  and  the  Big  Sword  associa- 
tions. But  an  event  occurred  first  which  promised 
ill  for  their  success.  On  January  23rd  a  command 
appeared  in  the  Peking  Gazette  for  the  assembly  in 
the  Palace  next  day  of  the  leading  Imperial  princes, 
the  members  of  the  Grand  Secretariat,  and  other 
high  officials.  Such  an  order  usually  signified  the 
occurrence  of  a  national  crisis,  such  as  the  sudden 
death  of  the  Emperor  or  the  appointment  of  a  new 
heir  to  the  throne. 

The  public  was  not  kept  long  in  suspense  as  to  the 
meaning  of  the  move.  Next  day  the  following  edict 
appeared  in  the  Emperor's  name  : — 

"  While  yet  in  Our  infancy,  We  were  by  the  grace 
of  the  Emperor  Tungchih  chosen  to  receive  from 
Him  the  heavy  responsibilities  of  head  of  the 
whole  Empire,  and  when  His  Majesty  died  We 
sought  day  and  night  to  be  deserving  of  such  kind- 
ness by  Our  energy  and  faithfulness  in  Our  duties. 
We  were  also  indebted  to  the  Empress  Dowager, 
who  taught  and  cherished  Us  assiduously,  and  to 
1  Rev.  A.  H.  Smith,  China  in  Convulsion,  p.  189. 


224   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

Her  We  owe  Our  safety  to  the  present  day.  Now 
be  it  known  also  that,  when  We  were  selected  to  the 
throne,  it  was  agreed  that  if  ever  We  should  have 
a  son,  that  son  should  be  proclaimed  heir  to  the 
throne.  But  ever  since  last  year  We  have  been 
constantly  ill,  and  it  was  for  this  reason  that  in  the 
eighth  moon  of  that  year  the  Empress  Dowager 
graciously  acceded  to  Our  urgent  prayers  and  took 
over  the  reins  of  government  in  order  to  instruct 
Us  in  Our  duties.  A  year  has  now  passed,  and  still 
We  find  Ourselves  an  invalid  ;  but  ever  keeping  in 
Our  mind  that  We  do  not  belong  to  the  direct  line  of 
succession,  and  that  for  the  sake  of  the  safety  of  the 
Empire  and  Our  ancestors  a  legal  heir  should  be 
chosen  for  the  throne,  We  again  prayed  the  Empress 
Dowager  to  choose  carefully  from  among  the  members 
of  the  Imperial  clan  such  an  one,  and  this  She  has 
done  in  the  person  of  Puchun,  son  of  Tsaiyi,  Prince 
Tuan.  We  hereby  proclaim  that  Puchun,  son  of 
Tsaiyi,  Prince  Tuan,  be  made  heir  to  the  Emperor 
Tungchih." 

After  signing  this — almost  an  act  of  abdication— 
the  unhappy  Kwanghsu,  according  to  the  gossip  of  the 
Palace,  fainted  away,  whereon  the  Dowager,  with 
every  appearance  of  solicitude,  hastened  to  arrange 
a  pillow  beneath  his  head  !  But  she  did  not  fail  to 
publish  the  decree. 

The  plot  was  revealed.  Prince  Tuan  guaranteed 
the  Empress  help  in  her  administration  and  protec- 
tion against  foreign  aggressors,  and  she  in  return 


THE   EMPRESS    AND   THE   BOXERS   225 

appointed  his  nine-year-old  son  next  Emperor  of 
China.  A  stalwart  defender  of  her  conduct,  Pro- 
fessor Headland  argues  that  she  did  not  select  Puchun 
as  the  new  Emperor  of  her  free  will,  but  because  he  was 
the  son  and  grandson  of  ultra-Conservatives  in  whose 
hands  she  had  placed  herself.  She  had  voluntarily 
placed  herself  in  their  hands,  nevertheless. 

A  storm  of  protest  arose  among  the  Chinese,  especi- 
ally among  those  resident  abroad,  for  whom  it  was 
safer  to  protest.  The  head  of  the  Telegraph  Depart- 
ment, King  Lien-shan,  after  wiring  to  the  Tsungli 
Yamen  from  Shanghai  a  memorial  to  which  twelve 
thousand  officials  and  others  had  put  their  names, 
wisely  fled  from  Chinese  jurisdiction.  The  Empress 
Dowager,  however,  strong  in  the  support  of  Tuan's  ten 
thousand  "  Tiger  Genii,"  and  promised  (it  was  said) 
the  benevolent  regard  of  Russia,  disregarded  all 
protests  and  took  the  heir-apparent  into  her  private 
quarters  in  the  Western  Palace  to  train.  His  educa- 
tion does  not  seem  to  have  been  a  success.  He 
appears  to  have  been  an  ill-mannered  little  boy,  and 
we  shall  see  that  she  ultimately  cut  him  off  from  the 
succession. 

There  was,  of  course,  no  objection  to  the  selection 
of  an  heir  to  the  throne.  This  had,  indeed,  been 
provided  for  in  1875,  in  the  event  of  Kwanghsu  not 
being  blessed  with  a  son,1  and  it  was  said  that  it  was 
now  certain  this  could  never  happen.  His  childless- 
ness had  long  been  looked  upon  by  the  superstitious 

1  See  p.  107. 
Q 


226   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

as  a  sign  of  the  wrath  of  Heaven  against  China.  It 
was  also  in  accordance  with  the  arrangement  of  1875 
that  he  who  came  after  Kwanghsu  should  be  accounted 
heir  to  Tungchih  in  order  to  correct  the  dynastic 
irregularity  of  Kwanghsu's  own  succession  to  the 
throne.  But  the  rumours  of  the  Emperor's  illness 
had  increased  again,  and  the  nomination  of  his  suc- 
cessor provoked  the  thought  that  preparations  were 
being  made  for  his  sudden  death.  It  is  no  reason 
for  wonder,  therefore,  that  stories  of  his  spitting 
blood  and  wasting  away  were  eagerly  caught  up  by 
the  populace  of  Peking,  and  partly  believed  by  the 
foreigners  resident  there  and  in  the  coast-ports.  In 
the  middle  of  February,  however,  he  gave  audience 
to  the  foreign  ministers,  the  Empress  Dowager  being 
present  behind  a  screen.  It  was  noticed  that  he 
looked  really  ill.  Early  in  March  the  members  of 
the  Imperial  College  of  Physicians  were  called  to  the 
Forbidden  City  to  prescribe  for  him,  and  there  was 
a  talk  of  removing  him  to  Jehol,  where  the  Empress 
Dowager  was  having  repaired  the  Palace,  unoccupied 
ever  since  her  husband's  death.  By  the  end  of  the 
month  the  reports  had  grown  to  such  an  extent  that 
they  made  out  that  the  Court  officials  had  already 
given  orders  for  mourning  clothes  in  expectation 
of  the  Emperor's  immediate  decease. 

All  these  stories  came  to  nothing.  But  it  must  be 
admitted  that  the  Empress  Dowager  encouraged 
them  when  she  commenced  a  new  persecution, 
already  mentioned  above,  of  some  fifty  people 


THE   EMPRESS    AND   THE   BOXERS   227 

suspected  of  being  sympathizers  with  Kang  Yu-wei's 
views.  If  she  was  still  actuated  by  feelings  of 
revenge  toward  those  whom  her  nephew  had  be- 
friended, she  was  not  likely  to  have  forgiven  him. 
It  was  believed  that  the  chorus  of  protests  against 
the  nomination  of  an  heir  checked  her  to  this  extent, 
that  she  abandoned  her  idea  of  deposing  Kwanghsu 
at  once.  Content  with  what  she  had  achieved,  she 
started  off  with  him  to  the  Summer  Palace  on  April 
yth,  in  spite  of  the  presentation  of  several  memorials 
begging  Their  Majesties  not  to  leave  Peking  while 
the  country  generally  was  so  disturbed. 

Next  month,  as  a  variation  on  the  rumours  of  the 
slow  poisoning  of  Kwanghsu,  we  hear  of  an  attempt 
to  make  away  with  the  young  Puchun.  An  eunuch 
brought  him  a  cup  of  tea  while  he  was  at  his  studies, 
saying  that  the  Empress  had  sent  it.  Puchun, 
polite  on  this  occasion  at  least,  hastened  to  thank  her 
before  he  drank  his  tea,  whereon  it  was  discovered 
that  she  knew  nothing  about  it.  The  cup  was  found 
to  be  poisoned,  an  enquiry  followed,  and  two  eunuchs 
were  beheaded.  We  are  not  told  why  the  eunuchs 
wished  to  remove  the  heir-apparent. 

Meanwhile  the  demand  of  the  Legations  for  the 
suppression  of  the  two  anti-foreign  societies  had  been 
met,  so  the  Tsungli  Yamen  informed  Sir  Claude 
Macdonald  on  March  ist,  by  the  issue  of  "Confiden- 
tial Instructions "  to  the  Viceroy  of  Chihli  and 
Governor  of  Shantung  to  prohibit  Boxerism.  Next 
day,  the  German  Minister  pointing  out  that  this  did 


228    GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

not  include  the  Big  Swords,  the  Yamen  said  that 
there  had  been  an  amalgamation  of  the  societies  ; 
and  they  refused  to  countenance  such  a  violation 
of  precedent  as  the  publication  of  an  edict,  which  the 
foreign  ministers  required,  on  the  top  of  Confidential 
Instructions.  The  ministers,  with  difficulty  in  some 
cases,  procured  from  their  Governments  warships 
to  join  in  a  demonstration  off  Taku.  They  failed, 
however,  to  procure  the  decree,  and  at  last  waived 
the  point.  Instead,  an  edict  appeared  on  April  i3th 
in  the  Emperor's  name,  avoiding  all  reference  to  the 
Boxers,  but  otherwise  satisfactory  in  tone.  A  warn- 
ing was  issued  against  good  people  allowing  them- 
selves to  associate  with  bad  in  raising  trouble  against 
native  Christians,  and  a  command  given  to  viceroys 
and  governors  to  issue  plain  proclamations,  when 
occasion  required,  calling  on  everyone  to  attend  to 
his  own  affairs  and  live  in  harmony  with  his  neigh- 
bours. 

Further,  Yulu,  Viceroy  of  Chihli,  published  in  the 
Peking  Gazette  a  memorial  describing  the  activity  of 
the  Imperial  troops  against  the  Boxers  in  his  province, 
which  was  quite  true.  But  in  Chihli,  as  in  Shantung, 
the  sympathy  of  the  province  was  with  the  Boxers, 
and  the  minor  officials  were  at  no  pains  to  conceal 
the  fact. 

These  two  pronouncements  look  suspiciously  like 
an  attempt  to  throw  dust  in  the  eyes  of  the  Legations. 
As  we  find  Sir  Claude  Macdonald  writing  home  that 
"  I  think  I  am  justified  in  expressing  an  opinion  that 


THE   EMPRESS   AND   THE   BOXERS   229 

the  Central  Government  is  at  last  beginning  to  give 
evidence  of  a  genuine  desire  to  suppress  this  anti- 
Christian  organization,"  some  of  the  Legation  people 
were  evidently  willing  to  be  blinded.  Fortunately 
not  everyone  was  in  a  similar  state  of  mind,  the 
United  States  Minister  in  particular  being  kept  well 
supplied  with  the  subject-matter  for  protests.  The 
Tsungli  Yamen,  however,  now  well  packed  with 
Boxer  sympathizers,  while  listening  to  the  protests 
with  courtesy,  threw  doubts  upon  the  correctness 
of  the  information.  Additional  proofs  only  led  to 
vague  promises  of  enquiry.  So  matters  dragged 
on  until  at  last,  with  great  difficulty,  the  Legations 
were  stirred  to  make  a  joint  demand  for  the  serious 
suppression  of  the  Boxers. 

This  was  brought  about  by  a  letter  from  Mon- 
seigneur  Favier,  Roman  Catholic  Vicar  Apostolic  of 
Peking.  No  foreigner  in  the  Chinese  capital  was 
better  supplied  with  information,  or  knew  the  whole 
neighbourhood  better  than  Monseigneur  Favier,  who 
had  lived  there  forty  years.  He  wrote  to  the  French 
Minister  on  May  I9th,  calling  his  attention  to  the 
growing  gravity  of  the  situation,  as  evidenced  by  a 
massacre  of  native  converts  which  had  just  taken 
place  in  the  prefecture  of  Paotingfu,  Chihli  ;  warning 
him  that  behind  the  religious  persecution  lay  the 
design  to  wipe  out  all  foreigners,  and  that  as  soon  as 
the  Boxers  reached  Peking  they  would  be  joined  by 
their  accomplices  within  the  walls  ;  and  stating  that 
the  whole  city,  with  the  exception  of  the  foreign 


23o   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

residents,  knew  the  date  when  the  attack  was  to  be 
made.  M.  Pichon  was  so  impressed  by  this  letter 
that  he  called  on  the  Diplomatic  Body  to  meet  and 
consider  it.  Opportunely  the  news  came  at  this  very 
moment  of  the  murder  of  a  native  preacher  within 
forty  miles  of  Peking.  The  diplomatists  met  and 
resolved  to  ask  the  Tsungli  Yamen  to  prove  they 
were  in  earnest.  This  demand  produced  two  edicts, 
but  not  before  the  Boxers  had  sacked  and  burnt  the 
buildings,  etc.,  at  Fengtai,  the  junction  of  the  Lu- 
Han  and  Peking-Tientsin  Railways,  and  caused  the 
foreigners  in  the  neighbourhood  to  fly  for  their 

lives. 

f 

Next  day,  May  29th,  a  wordy  decree  complained 
that  "  large  numbers  of  disbanded  soldiers  and  secret 
society  men  "  had  entered  the  Boxer  organization  to 
use  it  as  a  cloak  for  their  own  designs.  "  They  have 
even  gone  so  far  as  to  kill  some  military  officials, 
burn  telegraph-poles,  pull  up  the  lines  and  destroy 
railways.  What  difference  is  there  between  such 
conduct  and  actual  rebellion  ? "  Yunglu  and  the 
local  authorities  must  accordingly  combine  to  capture 
the  leaders  of  these  ruffians.  "  People's  hearts  are 
nowadays  most  excitable  and  liable  to  be  inflamed  to 
a  dangerous  degree,  which  will  surely  lead  to  an 
attempt  to  trouble  the  Christians.  We  command  the 
local  authorities  to  protect  the  latter  from  harm  and 
prevent  a  catastrophe." 

On  the  30th  another  decree  ordered  a  number  of 
high  officials  in  Chihli  to  hunt  out  and  capture  "the 


THE   EMPRESS   AND   THE   BOXERS   231 

real  disturbers  of  the  peace,"  while  those  who  merely 
followed  in  the  wake  of  the  rioters  were  to  be  warned 
and  "  dispersed  on  pain  of  condign  punishment." 
In  neither  of  these  decrees  were  the  Boxers  de- 
nounced. 

On  the  same  day  that  the  second  of  them  was 
published,  the  Tsungli  Yamen  refused  permission  for 
Legation  guards  to  enter  Peking,  on  the  ground  that 
the  Court,  which  was  still  at  the  Summer  Palace,  must 
first  be  consulted.  The  Ministers,  however,  warned 
by  the  Fengtai  affair,  were  firm,  and  on  the  3ist 
three  hundred  and  sixty-one  British,  French,  Russian, 
American,  Japanese,  and  Italian  marines  entered  the 
Tartar  City,  orders  to  resist  their  entry  being  only 
withdrawn  at  the  moment  of  their  arrival.  Three 
days  later  eighty-five  Germans  and  Austrians  followed 
them.  All  the  Legation  people  who  had  been 
holiday-making  on  the  Western  Hills  had  already 
been  called  back  to  Peking,  and  every  other  foreigner 
who  could  be  reached  was  hurried  in  too  to  be  placed 
under  the  protection  of  the  small  garrison. 

The  agitation  had  now  reached  the  very  gates  of 
Peking.  Within,  the  natives  who  did  not  belong  to 
the  organization  were  in  a  terrible  state  of  panic  and 
ready  to  believe  the  Boxers  capable  of  anything  they 
claimed  to  be  able  to  do.  The  troops,  especially 
Tung  Fu-hsiang's  Kansu  braves,  were  burning  with  a 
desire  to  join  the  society  men  in  an  attack  on  the 
Legations.  All  that  was  awaited  was  a  signal  from 
the  Empress  Dowager. 


CHAPTER   XVI 

WAR   AGAINST  THE   WORLD 

COME  time,  we  do  not  know  how  long,  before  the 
Empress  Dowager  finally  made  up  her  mind  to 
stake  all  upon  the  ability  of  the  Boxers  to  save  China 
from  the  grasp  of  the  foreigner,  she  was  induced  by 
Prince  Tuan  to  witness  a  Boxer  performance.  A 
party  of  fanatics  were  accordingly  introduced  into 
her  presence.  They  went  through  their  incantations, 
and  no  doubt  produced  some  of  their  miracles  for 
her  benefit.  At  any  rate,  she  seems  to  have  been 
convinced  of  their  supernatural  power,  and  to  have 
dismissed  at  last  all  doubts  as  to  the  advisability  of 
throwing  down  the  gauntlet  to  her  country's  oppres- 
sors. Then,  the  Boxers  having  reached  Peking,  she 
resolved  to  return  thither  herself. 

One  of  her  last  acts  before  she  quitted  the  Iho 
Park  was  the  publication  of  a  decree  (in  the  Emperor's 
name,  as  usual)  referring  to  her  new  allies  in  terms 
calculated  to  give  little  satisfaction  to  the  foreign 
residents  in  Peking.  Yet  this  decree  was  very  skil- 
fully worded.  It  began  by  admitting  that  "  the 
Western  religion "  had  been  for  many  years  dis- 
seminated in  China  without  disturbing  the  peace  of 

the  Empire.     Of  late  years,  however,  it  went  on  to 

232 


WAR   AGAINST   THE   WORLD         233 

say,  owing  to  the  great  increase  in  the  number  of  the 
churches,  evil  characters  had  crept  into  them,  and 
under  pretence  of  being  Christians  had  harried  and 
bullied  the  country  folk,  "  although  perhaps  such  a 
condition  of  affairs  cannot  have  been  viewed  with 
favour  by  the  missionaries  themselves."  The  history 
of  the  Boxer  movement  was  then  traced,  and  it  was 
shown  how  numbers  of  discontented  and  lawless 
people  had  joined  the  patriotic  movement  to  serve 
their  own  ends.  The  severest  punishment  was 
threatened  to  those  who  had  been  ringleaders  in 
stirring  up  trouble  ;  but  at  the  same  time  a  warning 
was  issued  that  if  the  Army  were  found  guilty  of 
excesses  against  the  country  folk  the  responsible 
officers  would  be  summarily  executed.  To  Viceroy 
Yulu  was  entrusted  the  duty  of  investigating  whether 
such  excesses  were  actually  being  committed. 

Clearly  such  a  decree  was  not  calculated  to  frighten 
the  Boxers  as  much  as  their  enemies.  Yet  when  the 
Legations  heard  that  the  Court  was  on  its  way  back 
to  Peking,  the  hope  was  expressed  that  this  move 
signified  the  approach  of  a  better  state  of  things. 
The  cutting  of  the  telegraphic  connection  along  the 
railway  line  to  Tientsin  on  June  4th  had  occasioned 
anxiety,  as  intercourse  with  the  outer  world  was  now 
precarious.  But  it  was  trusted  that  the  home-coming 
of  the  rulers  of  China  would  be  followed  by  a  restora- 
tion of  communications. 

On  the  evening  of  the  9th  the  Empress  Dowager, 
accompanied  by  the  Emperor  and  the  whole  Court, 


234   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

returned  to  the  capital,  a  great  display  of  military 
forces  being  made  in  the  streets  and  perfect  order 
being  kept.  But  that  very  day  a  crowd  of  Boxers 
went  to  the  race-course  three  miles  West  of  Peking, 
burnt  down  the  grand  stand,  and  threw  a  native 
Christian  into  the  flames  ;  while  a  native  informant 
brought  news  to  the  British  Legation  that  the 
Empress  Dowager  had  been  heard  to  express  openly 
her  desire  to  drive  the  foreigners  out  of  the  city. 
Tung  Fu-hsiang,  it  was  added,  had  all  in  readiness 
to  attack  the  Legation  quarter. 

There  was  plainly  no  time  to  be  lost  now.  Sir 
Claude  Macdonald  wired  to  Tientsin  by  the  postal 
telegraph  for  Admiral  Seymour  to  march  on  Peking, 
the  other  Powers'  representatives  similarly  instructing 
their  chief  naval  officers.  On  the  loth  the  message 
came  back  that  Seymour  had  started  with  nine 
hundred  men  to  restore  the  railway,  with  the  con- 
sent of  Viceroy  Yulu.  From  this  moment  all 
telegraphic  communication  with  the  coast  was  entirely 
cut  off,  the  postal  line  being  destroyed  that  day. 
Except  for  the  line  to  Kalgan,  which  survived  to 
June  1 7th,  Peking  was  isolated  from  the  world,  and 
the  Western  residents,  their  numbers  enormously 
swelled  by  the  presence  of  their  guards  and  the 
crowds  of  refugees  from  the  surrounding  country, 
were  in  a  position  already  closely  resembling  a  siege. 
On  the  nth  the  Chancellor  of  the  Japanese  Lega- 
tion, Mr.  Sugiyama,  was  murdered  while  attempting 
to  visit  the  railway  station  outside  the  walls.  On 


WAR   AGAINST   THE   WORLD         235 

the  1 2th  the  German  Minister,  Baron  von  Ketteler, 
captured  a  man  in  full  Boxer  uniform  in  Legation 
Street ;  and  that  night  the  Boxers  began  to  enter  the 
Tartar  City  in  great  force.  Fires  now  started  all  over 
Peking,  mission-buildings,  foreign  property,  and  the 
houses  of  native  Christians  suffering  alike,  while  the 
converts  themselves  were  massacred  right  and  left. 

It  could  not  be  expected  that  we  should  be  able  to 
follow  the  proceedings  of  China's  rulers  at  this  time 
with  any  exactitude.  From  various  accounts  drawn 
originally  from  native  sources,  however,  it  is  possible 
to  arrive  at  a  rough  idea  of  what  was  happening  in 
the  Councils  of  State.  The  first  step  was  the  dis- 
missal from  the  Tsungli  Yamen  of  Prince  Ching  and 
the  Chinese  President  of  the  Board  of  Rites,  on  the 
ground  that  they  showed  too  much  timidity.  Prince 
Ching  was  succeeded  at  the  head  of  the  Yamen  by 
Prince  Tuan,  in  spite  of  the  latter's  protests  of  un- 
willingness to  take  the  post.  At  the  same  time  three 
violent  reactionaries  were  added  to  the  body,  which 
was  now  so  constituted  as  to  be  ready  to  vote  for  a 
definite  alliance  with  the  Boxers. 

On  June  i6th,  the  day  on  which  the  Western 
admirals  were  delivering  their  ultimatum  to  the 
officer  in  command  of  the  Taku  Forts,  the  Empress 
Dowager  called  first  a  meeting  of  clansmen  and  then 
a  joint  council  of  Manchus  and  Chinese.  Address- 
ing the  council,  she  spoke  of  the  long-continued 
oppression  of  China  by  the  foreigners  and  the 
necessity  of  now  fighting  to  the  last  to  preserve  the 


236   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

Empire.  The  Manchus  had  unanimously  called  for 
war  to  the  knife,  and  she  approved  of  their  advice. 
She  waited  for  suggestions. 

An  enlightened  Chinese,  Hsu  Ching-cheng,  former 
Minister  to  St.  Petersburg,  at  once  declared  his 
opinion  that  it  was  impossible  to  fight  the  whole 
world.  Kangyi  answered  that  this  war  would  differ 
from  all  China's  previous  foreign  wars,  since  now 
they  had  the  invulnerable  Boxers  on  their  side.  On 
someone  breaking  in  to  point  out  that  numbers  of 
them  had  been  slain  already,  the  Empress  silenced 
him  with  the  remark  that  he  must  be  mistaken.  The 
head  of  the  Tseng  family  appealed  for  the  removal 
of  the  battle-ground  from  Peking,  respect  for  the 
sanctity  of  the  Legations,  and  an  abandonment  of 
the  intention  of  fighting  all  the  Powers,  some  of 
whom  were  friendly  to  China.  He  was  followed  by 
Natung,  a  Manchu,  wing-commander  under  Prince 
Tuan  of  the  "  Tiger  Genii,"  and  a  member  of  the 
Tsungli  Yamen.  This  able  man,  bitterly  but.  un- 
justly attacked  by  foreigners  during  the  events  of 
1900-1,  spoke  in  favour  of  peace,  or  at  least  war 
near  the  coast.  Shouts  of  traitor  from  his  fellow 
Manchus  greeted  him,  and  the  Empress  "glared  at 
him."  Kangyi  then  proposed  that,  since'  they  were 
in  favour  of  peace,  Natung  and  Hsu  Ching-cheng 
should  be  sent  to  stop  Admiral  Seymour's  advance. 

The  Emperor,  who  had  listened  in  his  usual 
silence  so  far,  now  begged  his  aunt  not  to  ruin  China 
by  declaring  war  against  the  whole  world  simultane- 


WAR   AGAINST   THE   WORLD         237 

ously.  But  he  was  disregarded,  and  the  meeting 
broke  up  in  disorder,  the  reactionary  Manchus  being 
loud  in  their  accusations  of  treachery  against  every 
one  who  opposed  them.1  All  that  was  decided  was 
to  send  Natung  and  Hsu  to  see  if  they  could  dis- 
suade Admiral  Seymour  from  advancing.  They  set 
out  on  their  mission,  but  the  Boxers  prevented  them 
from  going  any  further  than  Fengtai  by  threats  of 
instant  death.  Hsu  was  executed  in  Peking  next 
month  on  a  charge  of  using  foreign  affairs  to  pro- 
mote his  own  ends  !  Natung  survived  to  serve 
his  country  later,  and  we  find  him  in  1906  reckoned 
as  one  of  the  Moderate  party  in  Peking  politics. 

Another  meeting — possibly  that  of  the  Manchus 
before  the  general  council  on  June  i6th — was 
described  by  one  of  the  Manchu  princesses  to 
Mrs.  Headland.2  The  Empress  Dowager  sat  on  the 
throne,  the  Emperor  and  Prince  Tuan,  as  father  of 
the  heir-apparent,  standing  at  her  side,  and  all  the 
Imperial  and  hereditary  princes  being  present.  She 
began  by  telling  how  China  was  being  despoiled 
by  the  foreigners,  how  the  patriot-braves,  with  their 
magic  powers  and  invulnerability  to  bullets,  offered 
to  drive  them  out.  Should  she  accept  the  offer  ? 
Prince  Tuan  proclaimed  his  belief  in  the  Boxers. 
The  Itereditary  princes,  as  ignorant  as  Tuan  himself 
and  still  less  acquainted  with  foreigners,  were  perhaps 

1  This  account  is  abridged  from  the  story  of  "  a  refugee "  in  the 
North  China  Dally  News  of  August  8th,  1910. 

2  Court  Life  in  China,  pp.  161  fF. 


238    GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

afraid  to  speak  against  him,  even  if  they  wished. 
Only  Prince  Su  ("  a  man  of  strong  character,  widely 
versed  in  foreign  affairs,  and  of  independent  thought," 
says  Mrs.  Headland)  derided  the  possibility  of  the 
Boxers  vanquishing  foreign  armies,  and  denounced 
the  superstitious  belief  in  the  efficacy  of  their  incanta- 
tions. But  the  Empress  told  him  that  she  had  herself 
seen  exhibitions  of  their  powers  in  the  Palace,  where- 
on he  held  his  peace.  An  appeal  being  made  to 
Prince  Ching,  he  said  that  he  considered  the  under- 
taking most  risky,  but  that  if  Her  Majesty  decided 
to  throw  in  her  lot  with  the  Boxers  he  would  do 
all  he  could  to  further  her  wishes.  (This  was  the 
man  who  had  been  for  so  many  years  at  the  head  of 
the  Foreign  Office  and  was  popular  with  foreigners, 
though  by  no  means  liked  by  Kwanghsu  !)  "  The 
Emperor,"  said  the  princess,  "  was  not  asked  for  an 
expression  of  his  opinion  on  this  occasion,  but  when 
he  saw  that  the  Boxer  leaders  had  won  the  day  he 
burst  into  tears  and  left  the  room." 

After  further  councils,  at  which  Kwanghsu  vainly 
gave  warning  that  China's  failure  must  mean  her  dis- 
memberment by  the  Powers,  it  was  decided  to  send 
a  circular  note  to  the  Legations  in  the  name  of  "  the 
Princes  and  Ministers."  This  note,  dated  4  p.m. 
on  June  i9th,  stated  that  since  the  Viceroy  of  Chihli 
had  announced  the  foreign  admirals'  demand  for  the 
surrender  of  the  Taku  Forts,  this  showed  the  Powers' 
intention  of  breaking  off  friendly  relations  with 
China.  In  view  of  the  rising  of  "the  Boxer  ban- 


WAR   AGAINST   THE   WORLD         239 

ditti "  in  Peking,  China  would  find  it  a  difficult 
matter  to  afford  complete  protection  to  the  Legations. 
The  diplomatists  and  their  families  were  therefore 
begged  to  leave  Peking  within  twenty-four  hours, 
"in  order  to  avoid  danger."  An  escort  of  troops 
had  been  provided  to  guard  them  on  their  way,  it 
was  stated,  and  the  local  authorities  had  been  notified 
to  pass  them  safely  on  to  Tientsin. 

It  was  said  that  when  this  note  was  sent  out  the 
"Princes  and  Ministers"  were  perfectly  aware  not 
only  that  the  admirals  had  presented  an  ultimatum 
at  Taku  on  the  1 6th,  but  also  that  the  forts  had  fallen 
on  the  iyth  ;  but  that,  for  motives  of  their  own, 
they  decided  to  keep  this  information  to  themselves. 
Perhaps  it  is  hardly  natural  to  expect  them  to  have 
hastened  to  announce  their  country's  "  loss  of  face." 
By  suppressing  what  they  knew,  however,  and  leaving 
the  foreigners  ignorant  of  the  outbreak  of  war,  they 
certainly  encouraged  the  customary  charge  of  Chinese 
treachery. 

On  receiving  the  note,  the  heads  of  the  Legations, 
though  expressing  in  their  reply  their  willingness  to 
leave  Peking,  declared  that  it  was  impossible  to  accept 
the  twenty-four  hours'  notice,  and  asked  for  an  inter- 
view with  Princes  Tuan  and  Ching  nexf  morning. 
No  answer  coming  back,  on  the  morning  of  the  2oth 
Baron  von  Ketteler,  a  very  courageous  man,  but 
(although  long  acquainted  with  the  country)  offensive 
in  his  manner  to  the  Chinese,  volunteered  to  go  to 
the  Tsungli  Yamen.  Taking  only  his  German  inter- 


240   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

preter  and  his  Chinese  chair-men  and  outriders,  he 
set  out.  In  Hatamen  Street,  the  Eastern  boundary 
of  the  Legation  quarter,  he  met  his  fate.  Near  the 
spot  where  now  stands  the  memorial  arch  erected 
in  remembrance  of  the  tragedy,  a  Chinese  officer  in 
command  of  some  men  walked  up  to  the  Baron's 
chair  and  shot  him  through  the  head,  killing  him 
instantly.  The  interpreter  escaped  with  a  shot  in 
the  leg,  and  with  difficulty  got  back  to  the  Legation, 
preceded  by  one  of  the  outriders,  the  rest  of  the 
native  escort  having  dispersed  in  haste. 

The  imprisoned  foreigners  had  received  their 
warning  that  it  would  be  criminal  folly  to  attempt  to 
reach  Tientsin,  whatever  were  the  precise  intentions 
of  the  Chinese  Government.  A  message  received 
from  the  Tsungli  Yamen  in  the  afternoon,  announcing 
that  "  two  Germans  "  had  fired  on  the  crowd  and  that 
one  of  them  had  been  killed  by  the  return-fire,  and 
asking  for  their  names,  was  calculated  to  inspire  the 
worst  suspicions  of  these  intentions.1  But  all  doubt 
as  to  what  was  about  to  happen  was  removed  when 
precisely  at  4  p.m.,  twenty-four  hours  after  the  letter 
of  the  previous  day,  rifle-fire  began  to  pour  into  the 
exposed  Austrian  Legation,  followed  by  a  general 
fusillade  all  round  the  quarter. 

1  It  is  a  remarkable  fact,  which  has  never  yet  been  satisfactorily 
explained,  that  the  London  evening  and  New  York  papers  of  June 
1 6th,  published  a  Laffan's  Agency  telegram  from  Tientsin  to  the 
effect  that  Baron  von  Ketteler  had  been  murdered — more  than  three 
days  before  the  event !  Was  the  murder  a  pre-arranged  act  of  revenge 
for  the  seizure  of  Kiaochau  three  years  previously  ? 


WAR   AGAINST   THE   WORLD         241 

So  began  the  famous  siege,  which  lasted  until  the 
early  morning  of  August  I4th,  with  a  partial 
armistice  in  the  'middle  of  July.  It  is  not  within  the 
scope  of  this  book  to  describe  the  blockade  of  the 
Peking  Legations.  We  shall  only  take  note  of  the 
official  attitude  of  China  during  this  period. 

On  the  day  after  the  German  Minister's  murder 
and  the  beginning  of  the  assault  on  the  Legations, 
an  edict  was  published  in  Kwanghsu's  name.  After 
mentioning  the  foreign  demand  for  the  surrender  of 
the  Taku  Forts,  the  Emperor  was  made  to  say  : 
"  We  have  now  reigned  nearly  thirty  years  and  have 
treated  the  people  as  Our  children,  they  honouring 
Us  in  return  as  their  God  ;  and  during  Our  reign 
We  have  been  the  recipients  of  the  gracious  favour 
of  the  Empress  Dowager.  Furthermore,  Our  an- 
cestors have  come  to  Our  aid,  and  the  Gods  have 
answered  to  Our  call,  and  never  has  there  been  so 
universal  a  manifestation  of  loyalty  and  patriotism. 
With  tears  We  have  announced  the  war  in  the 
ancestral  shrines."  The  edict  concluded  with  an 
assurance  that,  while  the  foreigners  relied  on  craft, 
China  put  her  trust  in  the  justice  of  Heaven. 

Various  proclamations  eulogizing  the  Boxers  and 
providing  for  their  maintenance,  etc.,  followed  in 
rapid  succession.  The  most  remarkable  was  that  of 
July  2nd,  exhorting  all  members  of  the  "Boxer 
Militia"  to  loyalty,  calling  on  all  converts  to  repent 
of  their  errors  if  they  wished  to  "escape  from  the 
net,"  and  ordering  that,  since  hostilities  had  broken 


242    GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

out  between  China  and  the  foreign  Powers,  mission- 
aries of  every  nationality  should  be  driven  back  to 
their  own  lands.  "  But,"  it  was  added,  "  it  is  impor- 
tant that  measures  be  taken  to  secure  their  protection 
on  their  journey,"  and  the  high  provincial  authorities 
must  accordingly  take  the  necessary  steps.1 

The  Boxers  were  thus  now  expressly  recognized  as 
patriotic  "  militia,"  excellent  servants  of  the  Govern- 
ment in  its  war  against  the  world  ;  and  the  presence 
alike  of  foreign  missionaries  and  of  native  converts 
in  the  country  was  declared  intolerable.  Yet  all  the 
while  China  refused  to  withdraw  her  Ministers  from 
the  capitals  of  Europe  and  the  United  States,  and 
allowed  the  great  Viceroys  of  the  Centre  and  the 
South  of  the  Empire  to  maintain  an  attitude  of 
friendly  neutrality  with  regard  to  foreigners. 

It  must  be  noted  that  even  at  the  period  when  the 
Boxer  leaders  exercised  their  fullest  control  in  the 
counsels  of  the  Empire,  in  June  and  early  July,  the 
wording  of  the  decrees  never  became  violent.  There 
was  some  restraining  influence  at  work.  We  shall 
not  go  wrong,  probably,  in  attributing  this  to  Yunglu, 
whose  power  with  his  aunt  was  always  used  to  oppose 
the  extremists.  An  indication  of  the  Empress's 
shaken  confidence  in  the  reactionaries  is  given  in  the 

1  The  Rev.  A.  H.  Smith  calls  this  an  edict  "under  the  aegis  of 
which  the  slaughter  of  all  foreigners,  missionaries  not  more  than  others, 
and  the  extermination  of  all  native  Christians  who  would  not  recant 
became  a  duty"  (China  in  Convulsion,  p.  378).  Surely  this  is  a  dis- 
tortion of  the  words  of  the  edict  as  given  by  Mr.  Smith  himself, 
involving  an  unwarrantable  amount  of  reading  between  the  lines. 


WAR   AGAINST   THE   WORLD         243 

appointment,  on  July  gth,  of  Li  Hung-chang  as 
Viceroy  once  more  of  Chihli.  Few  Chinese  officials 
could  be  found  less  likely  to  sympathize  with  the 
Boxers  than  Li,  whose  openly  expressed  opinion  was 
that  the  shortest  and  best  way  to  deal  with  them  was 
to  behead  their  leaders. 

Had  the  Empress  then  ceased  to  enjoy  her  "  tiger 
ride  "  ?  A  change  began  to  come  over  the  spirit  of 
the  proclamations  put  into  Kwanghsu's  mouth,  and 
the  siege  of  the  Legations  commenced  to  slacken. 
On  July  1 8th  an  armistice  was  concluded  (though 
only  partially  observed),  and  on  the  same  day  an 
edict,  omitting  all  reference  to  the  Boxers,  regretted 
the  murders  of  Mr.  Sugiyama  and  Baron  von 
Ketteler,  insisted  on  the  necessity  of  protecting 
foreigners,  and  ordered  investigation  into  cases  of 
loss  of  life  or  property  by  them.  The  question  of 
the  retirement  of  the  Legation  people  and  other 
foreigners  to  Tientsin  was  now  again  brought  up,  and 
Yunglu  was  bidden  to  select  officers  and  trustworthy 
troops  to  give  them  safe  conduct  on  their  way. 

The  tiger,  however,  was  out  of  hand.  The 
Government  could  not  control  Tung  Fu-hsiang's 
men  or  the  Boxer  hordes.  After  a  recrudescence  of 
firing  on  July  25th,  followed  by  a  present  of  fruit 
from  the  Tsungli  Yamen  to  the  Legations  three 
days  after,  a  very  violent  assault  was  begun  in  the 
early  hours  of  August  6th.  The  Tsungli  Yamen 
sent  in  a  message  of  regret — that  the  foreigners  had 
opened  fire  on  the  Chinese  troops  1  But  the  siege 


244   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

was  nearly  at  an  end.  On  the  8th  the  Yamen 
announced  that  Li  Hung-chang  had  been  appointed 
plenipotentiary  to  negotiate  for  peace.  Four  days 
later  they  asked  for  an  interview  with  the  foreign 
Ministers  to  discuss  terms.  That  same  night  firing 
was  exceptionally  heavy  all  round  the  Legation 
quarter.  On  August  I4th,  the  fifty-sixth  day  of  the 
siege,  the  relief  columns  entered  the  Tartar  City. 

No  account  has  ever  been  made  public  of  the  Em- 
press Dowager's  personal  conduct  between  the  councils 
of  war  in  mid-June  and  her  abandonment  of  Peking  in 
August.  Only  from  the  wavering  tones  of  the  edicts 
and  the  inconsistent  manner  in  which  the  siege  was 
carried  on  can  we  deduce  anything  concerning  her 
feelings.  The  early  explosion  of  the  Boxer  claims  to 
personal  invulnerability  and  to  aid  from  the  spirits 
seems  to  have  shattered  her  hopes  of  driving  out 
the  foreigners,  in  spite  of  the  undoubted  bravery 
with  which  the  Chinese  met  the  advance  of  the 
Seymdur  relief  expedition  and  contested  the  pos- 
session of  Tientsin.  Her  appeal  to  her  old  friend 
Li  Hung-chang  was,  as  has  been  said,  a  sign  of  her 
failing  faith  in  the  Boxers.  She  was  returning  to 
sanity — and  coming  to  despair.  In  late  July  and 
the  first  half  of  August  there  was  no  real  Govern- 
ment in  Peking.  The  Imperial  edicts  ignored  the 
past  and  made  light  of  the  situation,  the  Tsungli 
Yamen  talked  of  peace,  and  the  soldiery  carried  on 
a  species  of  warfare  which  would  have  been  comic 
had  it  not  been  attended  by  a  large  number  of 


WAR   AGAINST   THE   WORLD         245 

casualties.  And  at  last  the  Allies  were  at  the  gates 
of  Peking.  Some  severe  opposition  was  offered  to 
the  Japanese  at  the  Northern  end  of  the  East  Wall 
of  the  Tartar  City,  but  otherwise  the  resistance  was 
trivial.  The  Imperial  troops  mostly  fled  precipitately 
from  their  posts,  leaving  arms,  uniforms,  banners,  food 
and  teacups  behind  them.  Was  it  intended  that  they 
should  fight,  or  was  an  assault  on  the  North  expected 
and  the  entry  from  the  East  therefore  a  surprise  ? 

The  Chinese  Court  had  good  precedent  for  the 
policy  to  be  adopted  when  the  foreign  troops  forced 
their  way  to  the  capital.  Hiengfung  had  fled  with 
his  whole  Court  in  1860,  leaving  a  younger  brother 
behind  to  negotiate.  So  now  Tze-hi  fled  with  her 
Imperial  nephew,  all  the  leading  princes  and  prin- 
cesses, and  the  high  officials.  Rumours  had  been 
current  in  the  city  in  July  that  this  would  happen  if 
the  Allies  came  to  Peking,  and  it  was  known  that 
carts  were  kept  in  readiness.  Either  on  the  night 
of  August  I4th  or  the  morning  of  the  I5th,  at 
any  rate  some  hours  after  the  invaders  were  in  the 
Tartar  City,  the  fugitives  left  the  Palace,  made  their 
way  to  the  North-western  gate,  and  started  off  in 
their  carts  for  the  mountain  barrier  fifty  miles  South- 
west of  Peking,  a  terrified  crowd  of  Imperial 
princes  and  princesses,  officials  of  all  ranks,  banner- 
men,  eunuchs,  Court  ladies,  and  servants  of  both 
sexes.  Prince  Ching  accompanied  them  as  far  as 
the  mountains,  and  was  then  left  behind  to  do  as 
Prince  Kung  had  done  forty  years  earlier. 


246   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

According  to  M.  Pierre  Loti,1  the  Empress 
Dowager  spent  her  last  night  before  the  flight  in  a 
palace  on  a  small  island  in  the  Southern  part  of  the 
Lotus  Lakes.  This  palace  he  describes  as  "a  little 
marvel  of  grace  "  in  its  setting  of  cedar  trees,  raised 
on  a  white  marble  terrace,  with  roofs  of  green  tiles 
enriched  by  gilding.  Though  it  was  looted  by  the 
Allied  troops  before  him,  M.  Loti  was  able  to  secure 
for  himself  a  pair  of  little  red  silk  shoes,  embroidered 
with  butterflies  and  flowers,  with  heels  twelve  inches 
high,  which  had  belonged  to  the  Empress  herself. 
He  also  visited  in  October  her  bedroom  in  the 
Forbidden  City,  and  in  the  oratory  attached  to  it 
saw  an  old  wooden  image  of  the  Buddha,  with  its 
gilt  all  tarnished,  but  with  a  necklace  of  fine  pearls 
about  it,  before  which  there  still  lay  a  withered  offer- 
ing of  flowers.  This  an  eunuch  told  him  had  been 
laid  on  the  altar  by  Her  Majesty  at  the  last  moment 
before  her  flight. 

In  her  haste  the  Empress  left  jewels,  treasures,  and 
rich  dresses  all  behind.  She  was  consumed  with 
panic,  apprehended  the  worst  fate  at  the  hands  of  the 
provincials  if  they  recognized  her,  and  disguised  her- 
self in  the  costume  of  a  woman  of  the  people  ; 
while,  further  to  conceal  her  identity,  she  cut  the  long 
finger-nails  of  which  she  was  so  proud  all  her  life. 
She  had,  indeed,  exchanged  ease  and  luxury  for  their 
extreme  opposites.  The  discomforts  of  the  journey 
can  hardly  be  imagined  by  those  who  have  not 
1  Let  Dernien  Jours  de  Tekin. 


WAR   AGAINST  THE   WORLD        247 

travelled  in  the  springless  Peking  carts.  Provisions, 
too,  ran-  very  short,  and  the  Emperor  dutifully  stinted 
himself  of  food  in  order  that  his  adoptive  mother 
might  have  more.  So  she  herself  narrated  to  one  of 
her  foreign  lady  visitors  after  her  return  to  Peking. 
She  would  often  tell  a  vivid  tale  of  her  flight  to  such 
visitors,  quite  appreciating  the  humorous  side  of  it 
when  all  was  over,  though  confessing  that  she  did  not 
do  so  at  the  time. 

Nor  was  the  flight  devoid  of  casualties. 
Kwanghsu's  chief  concubine  seems  to  have  been 
left  behind  in  the  Forbidden  City,  whether  inten- 
tionally or  not,  and  committed  suicide  by  throwing 
herself  into  a  well,  the  Empress  Dowager  later 
decreeing  to  her  posthumous  honours  for  "  protecting 
her  virtue."  At  Paotingfu,  the  first  halting-place, 
ninety  miles  across  country  from  Peking,  Chungyi, 
father  of  the  former  Empress  Ahluta,  put  himself  to 
death,  followed  by  all  his  family.  And  Kangyi  fell  ill 
and  died  between  Taiyuanfu  and  Sianfu. 

The  former  of  these  two  towns,  about  three 
hundred  miles  distant  from  Peking,  was  reached 
before  the  end  of  September,  by  which  time  Prince 
Ching  had  timidly  made  his  way  back  to  the  capital 
and,  carefully  guarded  by  the  Japanese,  was  waiting 
for  Li  Hung-chang  to  join  him  from  Tientsin,  where 
he  was  a  similar  honorary  prisoner  in  the  hands  of 
the  Russians.  Li  was  allowed  to  come  to  Peking 
on  October  loth,  and  negotiations  at  last  began.  On 
his  way  North  Li  had  received  from  the  Empress 


248    GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

Dowager  a  disclaimer  of  all  connection  with  the 
attack  on  the  Legations,  and  he  commenced  operations 
by  producing  a  private  decree  which  he  said  Their 
Majesties  had  sent  to  him,  proposing  some  mild 
punishment  for  the  Boxer  leaders.  This  he 
endeavoured  to  persuade  the  United  States  Minister 
to  recommend  for  his  colleagues'  acceptance.1 

Such  an  attitude  of  mind  on  the  part  of  the 
Government  of  China  was  clearly  not  to  be  tolerated 
by  the  Powers,  and  they  therefore,  without  breaking 
off  negotiations,  continued  their  military  activity. 
Punitive  expeditions  were  sent  out  unceasingly  from 
Peking  over  the  neighbouring  countryside  until  the 
end  of  1900.  It  cannot  be  said  that  punishment  was 
uncalled  for,  and  severe  punishment,  too,  for  the 
many  outrages  which  had  been  committed  during 
the  Boxer  rising.  Unhappily  for  their  reputation, 
the  Allies  did  not  stop  short  at  just  punishment,  but 
went  on  in  such  a  way  that  their  conduct  could  only 
be  called  a  gross  scandal  to  Western  civilization. 
The  Germans  had  been  bidden  by  their  Kaiser  to  act 
"like  Huns,"  and  they  did  so.  But  they  were  no 
worse  than  many  of  their  fellow-soldiers,  and  better 
than  some.  We  cannot  go  into  details  here,  and  will 
content  ourselves  with  one  quotation  from  the 
Rev.  A.  H.  Smith,  who  was  far  from  being  the  most 
severe  critic  of  the  Allies  at  this  period.  He  says  : — 

"  It  would  be  a  gross  misrepresentation  to  affirm 
that  all  the  commanders  or  all  the  soldiers  of  any 
1  See  Mrs.  Conger's  Letter i  from  China,  p.  187. 


WAR   AGAINST   THE   WORLD         249 

section  of  the  allied  armies  have  been  lawless  and 
violent,  for  in  that  case  the  results  would  have  been 
such  as  took  place  along  the  banks  of  the  Amur 
River,  where  helpless,  inoffensive  villagers  by  the 
thousand  were  slaughtered  and  their  bodies  thrown 
into  the  broad  stream  until  it  was  positively  choked 
with  them.  But  armies,  like  individuals,  will  be 
judged  not  by  the  best,  but  by  the  worst  which  they 
have  done ;  and  in  this  case  the  worst  must  be 
admitted  to  have  been  very  bad  indeed.  There  have 
been  times  when  it  seemed  as  if  the  foreign  troops 
had  come  to  Northern  China  for  the  express  purpose 
of  committing  within  the  shortest  time  as  many 
violations  as  possible  of  the  sixth,  the  seventh,  and 
the  eighth  Commandments.  The  combined  result 
has  been  such  a  state  of  chaos  in  many  districts  as  is 
at  once  incredible  and  indescribable."1 

Whether  or  not  it  was  prompted  by  the  news 
which  reached  it  of  what  was  happening  around 
Peking,  the  Chinese  Court  had  not  stayed  at  Tai- 
yuanfu.  Crossing  over  the  frontiers  of  Shansi  into 
Shensi,  it  at  last  took  rest  in  the  very  early  Chinese 
capital  Sianfu,  in  modern  times  merely  the  head  city 
of  the  province,  and  chiefly  known  to  Westerners 
hitherto  as  the  place  where  stood  the  celebrated 
Nestorian  Christian  inscription  on  stone.  Here, 
seven  hundred  miles  from  Peking,  Tze-hi  at  last  felt 
herself  safe  from  pursuit ;  and  here  she  and  the 
whole  Court  stayed  until  the  following  October. 

1  China  in  Convulsion,  p.  715. 


CHAPTER   XVII 

THE  RETURN   TO   PEKING 

the  dreadful  work  of  punishment  went 
on  in  North  China,  accompanied  by  promiscu- 
ous murder,  rape,  and  loot,  the  negotiations  over  the 
terms  of  peace  gradually  drew  to  a  close.  On 
December  24th,  1900,  the  representatives  of  the 
Powers  handed  to  Li  Hung-chang  and  Prince  Ching 
the  Joint  Note  embodying  the  details  of  the  arrange- 
ment which  had  been  reached.  Six  days  later  Li  and 
Ching  formally  accepted  the  terms  on  behalf  of 
China,  while  on  the  i6th  of  the  following  month 
they  returned  the  Note  with  their  signatures 
attached. 

The  treaty  in  its  final  form  provided  for  apologies 
from  China  to  Germany  and  Japan  for  the  murders 
of  Baron  von  Ketteler  and  Mr.  Sugiyama,  that  to 
Germany  to  be  conveyed  by  the  Emperor's  brother 
Prince  Chun,  that  to  Japan  by  Natung,  now  Vice- 
President  of  the  Board  of  Revenue  ;  for  the  punish- 
ment of  the  surviving  Boxer  leaders *  ;  for  the 

1  Among  these  Prince  Tuan  was  condemned  to  death,  but  allowed 
to  be  "  exiled  to  Turkestan  "  and  there  imprisoned  for  life  ;  Prince 
Chuang  ordered  to  commit  suicide  ;  Yuhien  sentenced  to  execution  ; 
Tung  Fti-hsiang  suspended  from  office  until  a  fitting  penalty  should  be 
devised ;  and  Kangyi  and  Li  Ping-heng  posthumously  degraded. 
Prince  Chuang  committed  suicide  on  February  2ist,  1901,  while 

250 


A 


LI   HUNG-CHANG  in  1900 

With  an  autograph  inscription  by  His  Excellency  : — 

'  Earl  Li,  Minister  of  the  Board  of  Commerce  ;  Tutor  of  the  Heir  Apparent ; 
Grand  Secretary  of  the  Man  Wa  Palace  ;   Viceroy  of  the  Two  Kwangs. 
Photograph  taken  at  78  years  of  age. 
Given  in  the  sth  moon  of  the  26th  year  of  Kwanghsu." 


p.  231 


THE   RETURN   TO   PEKING          251 

erection  of  various  expiatory  monuments  ;  for  the 
payment  of  an  indemnity  of  450,000,000  Taels 
(£67,500,000)  within  thirty-nine  years  ;  for  the 
prohibition  of  the  import  of  arms  into  China,  the 
razing  of  the  Taku  Forts,  and  the  continued  occupa- 
tion by  the  Powers  of  certain  points  between  Peking 
and  the  sea ;  for  the  abolition  of  the  Tsungli  Yamen 
and  the  substitution  in  its  place  of  a  new  office,  the 
Wai  Wu  Pu  (Ministry  of  Foreign  Affairs),  to  take 
precedence  over  the  six  other  Ministries  of  State  ; 
etc.  etc. 

One  odd  clause  which  the  Powers  insisted  on 
inserting  was  for  the  suspension  of  official  examina- 
tions for  five  years  in  all  cities  where  foreigners  had 
been  maltreated.  The  measure  was  no  doubt  cal- 
culated to  hurt  the  pride  of  the  cities  so  punished. 
Yet  there  are  two  small  incidents  in  Chinese  history 
which  afford  a  curious  contrast  to  the  action  of  the 
Western  nations  in  1901.  About  1873,  when 
Kwangtung  province  was  being  much  disturbed  by 
clan-fights,  the  Governor  memorialized  the  throne 
that  the  best  remedy  would  be  the  dissemination  of 
copies  of  the  Book  of  Poetry  !  Again,  when  the 
Shenkan  provinces  were  emerging  from  rebellion  in 
the  Seventies,  the  Literary  Chancellor  recommended 
the  resumption  of  the  interrupted  examinations  in  the 

Yuhien  was  executed  next  day.  Tung  Fu-hsiang  ultimately  escaped 
with  a  sentence  of  banishment  and  reappeared  in  Kansu  in  1906,  living 
in  harmless  obscurity  at  the  age  of  84 ;  while  Prince  Tuan  seems 
never  to  have  gone  further  into  exile  than  Manchuria,  where  he  was 
heard  of  again  toward  the  end  of  1908. 


252   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

two  provinces,  in  which  case  he  did  not  despair  of 
the  Book  of  Poetry  having  its  duly  mollifying  effect 
on  the  people's  manners  !  By  the  West,  however, 
the  Book  of  Poetry  and  examinations  which  required 
its  study  were  evidently  not  looked  upon  with  equal 
favour  as  an  incentive  to  peaceful  life. 

It  was  not  stipulated  in  the  Treaty  that  the 
Emperor  Kwanghsu  should  be  restored  to  power, 
although  many  foreigners  would  have  liked  to  see 
this  provision  inserted.  The  diplomatists,  however, 
maintained  what  appeared  to  them  the  "  correct " 
attitude  of  not  interfering  in  a  domestic  affair  of  the 
Manchu  reigning  family. 

Li  Hung-chang's  share  in  the  conclusion  of  this 
Treaty  was  the  old  Viceroy's  last  great  service  to  his 
country.  It  is  true  that  in  the  interval  between  its 
signature  and  his  death  (at  the  age  of  seventy-nine) 
on  November  yth,  1901,  he  was  engaged  in  long  and 
tortuous  negotiations  with  Russia  concerning  the 
regularization  of  her  occupation  of  Manchuria.  He 
was  once  more  freely  denounced  as  a  traitor  to  China 
for  these  dealings  with  Russia.  But  from  a  letter 
written  by  him  to  Yunglu  thirty-eight  days  before 
his  death,  it  appears  that  he  was  only  attempting  to 
make  the  best  of  an  evil  situation.  Russia  was  in 
armed  possession  of  Manchuria  and  resisted  every 
attempt  of  the  other  Western  Powers  to  make  her 
withdraw.  Li's  idea  was  that  to  leave  her  there  was 
bound  to  bring  about  one  day  a  collision  between  her 
and  Japan,  in  event  of  which  China  could  throw  in 


THE    RETURN   TO   PEKING          253 

her  lot  with  the  victors  and  was  bound  to  benefit. 
This  was,  indeed,  "  the  policy  of  the  weak."  But 
neither  from  his  own  countrymen  nor  from  the 
majority  of  foreign  residents,  especially  the  British, 
in  China  did  the  astuteness  of  his  diplomacy  meet 
with  approval  at  the  time.  As  we  know,  Li's  ex- 
pectation of  a  Russo-Japanese  collision  was  perfectly 
justified.  Unhappily,  it  only  led  to  a  division  of  the 
spoils  between  the  two  nations,  not  to  a  restoration 
of  China's  authority  in  Manchuria. 

Li  Hung-chang  had  the  satisfaction  before  his 
death  of  hearing  that  his  Imperial  mistress  was  on 
her  way  back  to  the  capital  which  he  had  preserved 
for  her  ;  for  she  started  from  Sianfu  on  October  6th. 
The  departure  must  have  been  a  striking  spectacle, 
according  to  the  accounts  of  native  eye-witnesses. 
The  lucky  road  and  day  and  hour  had  been  fixed  by 
the  astrologers,  and  it  was  by  the  North  gate  that  the 
procession  emerged  on  the  morning  of  the  6th.  A 
vanguard  of  modern-drilled  troops  led  the  way, 
followed  by  Imperial  heralds  and  eunuchs  and  Manchu 
officers.  Amid  a  throng  of  princes  and  high  dig- 
nitaries on  horseback — Prince  Tuan  and  his  son  ; 
Yunglu,  recently  made  Grand  Secretary  ;  the  head 
eunuch  Li  Lien-ying,  etc. — a  yellow  sedan-chair  was 
borne  by  eight  red-clad  bearers,  in  which  sat  Tze-hi 
herself,  in  a  robe  of  Imperial  yellow  bordered  with 
white  fox-fur.  In  another  similar  chair  came  the 
Emperor,  in  a  crimson  mantle  edged  with  arctic  fox, 
followed  by  the  chairs  of  the  Empress  Yehonala,  the 


254   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

concubines  and  other  inmates  of  the  Palace,  the  rest 
of  the  Court,  and  a  train  of  baggage,  the  rear  being 
brought  up  by  a  strong  force  of  cavalry. 

So  slowly  came  back  over  the  seven  hundred  miles 
to  Peking  those  who  had  fled  to  Sianfu  in  such  terror 
in  the  summer  of  1900.  When  they  got  as  far  as 
Kaifengfu,  capital  of  Honan,  a  long  halt  was  made. 
It  was  said  that  Tze-hi  was  still  extremely  nervous 
and  was  most  unwilling  to  approach  Peking,  although 
the  Forbidden  City  (stripped,  it  is  true,  of  some  of 
its  most  valuable  treasures)  had  been  handed  over  to 
Chinese  military  possession  on  September  iyth,  in 
accordance  with  the  terms  of  the  Treaty.  For  some 
time  Yunglu  in  vain  pressed  his  Imperial  aunt  to 
continue  her  journey.  At  last,  during  the  celebra- 
tion of  her  sixty-seventh  birthday,  an  attempt  was 
made  by  members  of  a  secret  society,  the  Kolao  Hui, 
to  fire  the  temporary  palace  where  she  and  the  Court 
were  residing  at  Kaifeng.  This  decided  her,  and 
in  December  the  procession  set  out  again  North- 
eastward. 

An  example  of  the  evil  extent  to  which  Tze-hi 
tolerated  the  influence  of  the  head  eunuch,  Li  Lien- 
ying,  was  seen  on  the  journey  between  Sian  and 
Kaifeng.  While  the  travellers  were  still  in  Shensi 
province,  many  complaints  were  made  of  the  in- 
adequate arrangements  for  the  comfort  of  the 
Empress  Dowager  and  her  companions.  As  soon  as 
the  Honan  frontier  was  passed  all  was  changed,  and 
there  were  no  more  complaints  on  the  score  of  com- 


THE   RETURN   TO   PEKING          255 

fort.  The  explanation  was  that  the  high  authorities 
of  Honan  had  taken  the  precaution  of  making  a 
substantial  present  to  Li  Lien-ying  which  those  of 
Shensi  had  refused  to  do.  The  head  eunuch  had 
provided  that  the  difference  between  conditions  in 
Shensi  and  Honan  should  be  manifest. 

Before  leaving  Kaifeng  the  Empress  Dowager  took 
a  step  which  was  welcomed  by  the  friends  of  Kwanghsu, 
though  wrongly,  as  a  sign  of  the  approach  of  better 
days  for  him.  In  a  decree  of  November  3<Dth  she 
disinherited  Puchun.  It  was  said  that  the  young 
prince  was  wanting  in  respect  for  the  august  lady 
who  had  chosen  him  as  heir-apparent.  But  it  is  not 
known  whether  the  fact  that  his  father  had  nominally 
been  sentenced  to  death  by  the  Treaty  with  the 
Powers  had  not  also  something  to  do  with  his  son's 
disinheritance.  At  any  rate,  Puchun  was  now  dis- 
graced, reduced  to  rank  of  a  Duke,  and  ordered  to 
travel  several  days  in  the  rear  of  the  Imperial  pro- 
cession when  it  recommenced  its  journey.  His 
subsequent  lot  at  Peking  down  to  the  death  of  the 
Dowager  was  a  kind  of  honourable  imprisonment. 

At  length,  at  the  end  of  December,  the  Chihli 
frontier  was  reached,  where  it  became  possible  to 
make  use  of  the  restored  section  of  the  Lu-Han 
railway  line  running  to  Paotingfu  and  Peking. 
Viceroy  Yuan  Shi-kai  met  the  Court  at  Shengte  and 
Prince  Ching  at  Paoting,  where  a  stop  of  three  days 
was  made.  Owing  to  the  astrologers  finding  that 
the  proper  hour  for  the  re-entry  in  the  capital  was 


256   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

2  p.m.  on  the  twenty-eighth  day  of  the  twelfth 
moon,  January  yth,  1902,  there  was  no  reason  to 
hurry.  The  Empress  Dowager,  however,  was  ex- 
tremely nervous  lest  the  lucky  hour  should  go  by, 
and  was  eager  to  leave  Paoting  by  night.  The 
preparation  of  the  roads,  an  essential  part  of  every 
Imperial  journey  in  China,  had  not  been  completed, 
and  she  was  forced  to  wait  until  7  a.m.  She  appeared 
on  the  platform,  however,  before  dawn,  feverishly 
anticipating  the  starting  of  the  train. 

It  was,  indeed,  a  curious  fate  for  the  late  patroness 
of  the  Boxers,  haters  of  all  things  foreign,  to  be 
coming  back  to  her  capital  by  the  aid  of  the  "  fire- 
carriages  "  which  "  disturbed  the  Earth  Dragon  and 
destroyed  the  good  influences  of  the  soil."1  Both 
she  and  the  Emperor,  however,  were  said  to  have 
been  enchanted  by  their  first  railway  journey.  But 
even  more  remarkable  was  the  entry  into  Peking. 
For  months  beforehand  the  city  had  been  making 
its  preparations  for  welcoming  the  sovereigns  with 
paint,  plaster,  scaffolding,  and  all  manner  of  decora- 
tions. At  the  railway  station  where  they  were  to 
disembark  from  the  train  tents  of  yellow  satin  had 
been  put  up,  so  that  Their  Majesties  might  at  once 
begin  to  feel  that  they  had  reached  their  Imperial 
home.  The  vast  gateways  of  the  city  having  been 
considerably  damaged  by  fire  during  the  siege,  had 
been  patched  up  with  temporary  erections.  The 
streets  were  cleared  of  would-be  sightseers,  who  were 

1  See  above,  p.  215. 


THE    RETURN   TO   PEKING          257 

compelled  to  take  refuge  either  in  the  closed  shops  or 
behind  screens  of  matting  stretched  at  the  mouths 
of  the  side-alleys,  and  were  lined  by  modern-drilled 
Chinese  troops,  backed  by  Manchu  soldiery  and  the 
city  police,  with  whom  stood  the  officials  of  Peking 
and  the  privileged  gentry.  Foreigners  were  assigned 
seats  in  front  of  three  large  shops  set  apart  for  the 
purpose,  while  many  of  them,  especially  ladies,  lined 
the  wall  near  the  principal  gate  of  the  Tartar  City. 

At  noon  the  procession  left  the  station,  having  two 
hours  in  which  to  make  its  passage  to  the  Forbidden 
City.  "  Prince  Ching  was  the  first  conspicuous  man 
to  lead  the  way,"  says  an  eye-witness  of  the  scene.1 
"  Then  followed  soldiers  on  foot  and  on  horseback, 
eunuchs  and  other  attendants,  likewise  on  horseback, 
the  red  carts  of  nobles  and  ordinary  carts,  yellow- 
covered  sedan-chairs  with  the  Emperor,  the  Empress 
Dowager,  the  Empress,  the  concubines  of  the 
Emperor,  the  concubines  of  the  former  Emperor 
Tungchih,  and  others,  with  yellow  satin  pillows, 
and  a  fine  company  of  high  officials  and  nobles  with 
yellow  jackets.  Banners  with  beautiful  decorative 
honours  were  here  and  there  carried  by  gaily  decked 
attendants.  ...  As  the  yellow  banners  drew  near, 
everyone  knelt  on  the  ground.  Here  and  there 
a  foreigner  might  have  been  seen  standing  with  hat 

1  A  Peking  correspondent  of  the  North  China  Herald,  writing  on 
January  yth.  Another  witness,  writing  in  the  Peking  and  Tientsin 
Times  of  January  i  ith,  says  that  the  procession  was  "of  that  tawdry, 
shoddy  character  that  Chinese  shows  usually  present  to  occidental 
eyes." 

S 


258   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

lifted,  though  the  Ministers,  at  the  request  of  the 
Foreign  Office,  had  directed  all  foreigners  to  remain 
off  the  main  street." 

The  Ministers  themselves  refrained  from  being 
present  to  witness  the  entry.  But  the  Empress 
Dowager  did  not  fail  to  notice  the  presence  of  other 
foreigners.  Kwanghsu,  who  came  first,  in  a  chair 
carried  by  eight  bearers  in  long  coats  of  red  and 
purple  silk  embroidered  with  the  character  signifying 
"  Long  Life,"  sat  silent,  melancholy,  and  apparently 
unconscious  of  all  that  went  on  about  him.  Not  so 
his  aunt.  When  she  caught  sight  of  a  foreign  face 
she  drew  back  the  curtains  of  her  yellow  sedan,  borne 
in  the  same  manner  as  the  Emperor's,  and  graciously 
bowed.  She  smiled  and  nodded  to  the  ladies  on  the 
wall,  and  even  called  out,  shook  her  hands,  or  pointed 
a  friendly  finger  to  some  whom  she  recognized 
personally.  And  so  she  swept  on  through  the  Chien- 
men  entrance  from  the  Chinese  into  the  Tartar 
quarter,  leaving  behind  her  almost  a  feeling  of  good- 
will.1 It  was  clearly  not  to  be  her  fault  if  the  events 
of  1900  were  not  soon  forgotten  by  the  nations  who 
banded  themselves  together  in  that  year  to  punish 
China  for  the  wrongs  which  they  had  suffered. 

As  for  the  Empress  herself  and  those  who  had 
fled  with  her,  it  was  doubtless  a  harder  task  for  them 
to  bury  the  past  in  a  real  oblivion,  however  they 

1  The  Times  obituary  notice  compares  her  conduct  toward  the 
foreign  ladies  on  this  occasion  to  that  of  "  a  real  and  misunderstood 
friend." 


THE    RETURN   TO   PEKING          259 

might  conceal  their  feelings  behind  a  mask.  When, 
forty  years  earlier,  the  rulers  of  China  came  back 
from  Jehol  to  Peking  there  was  a  vague  sense  of 
desecration  after  the  entry  into  the  capital  of  armed 
"  barbarians."  But  now  matters  were  a  thousand 
times  worse.  Not  merely  had  the  outer  sections 
of  Peking  been  used  as  barracks  and  encampments 
and  their  architecture  changed  to  suit  the  invaders' 
need,  but  the  sanctity  of  the  Imperial  and  Forbidden 
Cities  had  been  grossly  violated.  The  Six  Palaces, 
the  Imperial  libraries,  and  the  holiest  temples  had 
been  robbed  of  their  treasures.  The  Temple  of 
Heaven  had  lost  its  nine  ancestral  tablets  of  the 
Manchu  Emperors,  the  astronomical  instruments 
presented  to  Kanghi  by  Louis  XIV  of  France  had 
been  carried  off  by  the  German  Kaiser's  "  Huns " 
to  decorate  Potsdam,  and  within  the  Palace  walls 
were  great  gaps  where  once  precious  objects  had 
stood  or  hung,  while  on  the  floors  or  in  the  gardens 
were  the  scattered  fragments  of  porcelain,  jade, 
marble,  ivory,  bronze,  silken  stuffs,  etc.,  to  show 
where  the  representatives  of  another  civilization  had 
manifested  their  contempt  for  the  art  of  the  Celestial 
Empire  when  not  readily  commutable  into  cash. 

Times  were  indeed  greatly  changed  at  Peking. 
The  return  of  the  Court  was  marked  by  a  speedy 
reception  by  the  Emperor  of  six  foreign  Ministers 
newly  accredited  to  China  since  August,  1900,  and 
now  waiting  to  present  their  credentials.  There  was 
no  procrastinating  discussion  about  the  ceremonial 


to  be  observed  on  this  occasion.  Chinese  arrogance 
had  been  bitterly  humiliated,  and  for  the  first  time  in 
the  history  of  the  Empire  the  foreign  representatives 
entered  the  Forbidden  City  through  its  front  gate  on 
their  way  to  the  reception  hall.  Here  they  saw  first 
the  Emperor  and  then  the  Empress  Dowager.  Again, 
on  January  28th,  another  reception  took  place,  this 
time  of  the  whole  Diplomatic  Body.  The  audience 
was  remarkable  for  two  things  beside  being  held  in 
the  Palace.  In  the  first  place,  the  use  of  the  Manchu 
language  was  entirely  dispensed  with.  In  the  second, 
the  Empress  Dowager,  for  the  first  time  in  her  life, 
openly  occupied  the  throne  in  the  presence  of 
foreigners  ;  indeed,  for  the  first  time  met  them  face 
to  face  on  a  State  occasion.  The  Emperor  sat  on  a 
chair  covered  with  a  sable  robe,  on  a  low  platform 
in  front  of  the  throne,  with  the  usual  table  before 
him.  The  foreign  Ministers'  address  was  directed 
to  him,  and  it  was  he  who,  through  the  mouthpiece  of 
Prince  Ching,  made  the  reply.  But  at  presentation 
of  each  Minister  in  turn  to  the  Emperor  and  the 
Empress  Dowager,  the  former  only  uttered  a  few 
words  of  greeting,  whereas  the  latter  added  an 
expression  of  regret  for  the  events  of  1900,  and  an 
assurance  that  they  should  not  happen  again.  It 
seems,  therefore,  rather  unkind  of  the  writer  of  the 
Times  obituary  notice  on  Her  Majesty  to  say  merely 
that  she  "  made  some  indistinct  remarks  which  were 
supposed  to  express  her  sorrow  for  the  troubles." 
But  Tze-hi  was  prepared  to  go  further  with  her 


THE   RETURN   TO   PEKING          261 

apology.  She  issued  an  invitation  to  the  Legation 
ladies  and  other  prominent  foreign  ladies  in  Peking  to 
visit  her,  with  their  children.  She  had  already 
decided  to  do  this,  it  appears,  before  she  reached 
Peking,  an  edict  having  been  published  on  January 
2nd  mentioning  her  intention  of  holding  such  a 
reception  as  well  as  that  of  the  Ministers  them- 
selves. 

The  Legation  ladies  met  and  anxiously  debated 
whether  the  invitation  should  be  accepted,  some 
vigorously  protesting  against  the  idea  of  making 
courtesies  to  one  who  ought  to  be  begging  them  to 
forgive  her.  At  length  it  was  decided  to  go,  to  the 
fierce  indignation  of  the  majority  of  the  coast-port 
foreigners  in  China,  who  at  this  time  were  unable  to 
find  any  epithets  bad  enough  for  the  Dowager.  At 
the  appointed  hour  the  visitors  entered  the  Forbidden 
City  and  were  conducted  to  the  throne-room,  where 
the  Empress  Dowager  was  awaiting  them  with  the 
Emperor,  Empress,  Imperial  princesses,  and  many 
high  officials  of  the  Court.  As  they  came  into  the 
presence,  Mrs.  Headland  narrates  that  they  involun- 
tarily gave  the  three  courtesies  desired.  "  We  could 
not  but  feel  that  this  stately  woman  who  sat  upon  the 
throne  was  every  inch  an  Empress." ]  Tze-hi  gave  a 
smile  of  recognition  to  Mrs.  Conger,  the  only  one  of 
the  visitors  whom  she  had  met  before  ;  and,  after 
listening  to  an  address  from  her,  as  doyenne  of  the 

1  Court  Life  in  CAina,  p.  71.  Mrs.  Conger's  account  will  be  found 
in  Letters  from  China,  pp.  317-22. 


262    GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

diplomatic  ladies,  offering  congratulations  on  the 
return  to  Peking  and  hoping  for  friendlier  relations 
between  China  and  the  outer  world,  she  handed 
a  reply  for  the  kneeling  Prince  Ching  to  read.  Then 
as  each  lady  or  child  was  presented  to  her  in  turn 
she  grasped  their  hands.  All  were  presented  also  to 
the  Emperor.  At  an  informal  reception  in  another 
room  Tze-hi  asked  for  Mrs.  Conger,  took  her  hands 
in  both  of  her  own,  and  in  a  voice  shaken  with  emotion, 
said  :  "  I  regret  and  grieve  over  the  late  troubles. 
It  was  a  grave  mistake,  and  China  will  hereafter  be  a 
friend  to  foreigners.  No  such  affair  will  again 
happen.  China  will  protect  the  foreigner,  and  we 
hope  to  be  friends  in  the  future." 

After  this  apology,1  which  she  repeated  several 
times  in  similar  words  later,  Tze-hi  showed  astonish- 
ing affability.  She  distributed  rings,  bracelets,  and 
other  gifts  to  adults  and  children  alike,  accompanied 
them  to  a  luncheon,  drank  wine  with  some  of  them, 
lifted  a  tea-cup  to  Mrs.  Conger's  lips,  and  personally 
placed  fragments  of  food  in  the  mouths  of  the 
Minister's  wives  and  on  the  plates  of  other  guests. 
Finally  she  bade  them  farewell,  saying  :  "  I  hope  that 

1  The  Times  obituary  notice  states  that  "  she  asked  them  too  if  she 
did  not  suffer  in  common  with  them  from  the  wickedness  of  the 
Boxers,  who  acted  in  direct  opposition  to  her  orders."  Mrs.  Head- 
land reports  her  saying,  on  another  occasion,  to  a  lady  who  had  been 
through  the  siege  :  "  I  deeply  regret  all  that  occurred  during  those 
troublous  times.  The  Boxers  for  a  time  overpowered  the  Govern- 
ment, and  even  brought  their  guns  in  and  placed  them  on  the  walls  of 
the  Palace  "  (Court  Life  in  China,  p.  98). 


THE   RETURN   TO   PEKING          263 

we  shall  meet  oftener  and  become  friends  by  knowing 
one  another  better."  It  was  noticed  with  astonishment 
that  Her  Majesty  had  picked  up  some  English 
phrases,  which  a  Peking  correspondent  gives  as 
follows  :  "  Hao  tu  yiu;  Ha-fi  niu  yerh ;  T&  rin-k6  fi !  "* 

Speaking  of  her  impressions  of  the  Empress 
Dowager  on  this  day,  Mrs.  Conger  says  :  "  Her 
manner  was  thoughtful,  serious  in  every  way,  and 
ever  mindful  of  the  comfort  and  pleasure  of  her 
guests.  Her  eyes  are  bright,  keen,  and  watchful  that 
nothing  may  escape  her  attention.  Her  face  does  not 
show  marks  of  cruelty  or  severity  ;  her  voice  is  soft, 
low,  and  attractive  ;  her  touch  is  gentle  and  kind." 

Foreigners  who  were  not  brought  under  the  spell 
of  Tze-hi  like  the  United  States  Minister's  wife  not 
unnaturally  failed  to  understand  how  Europeans  or 
Americans  could  be  on  friendly  terms  with  a  woman 
who,  less  than  two  years  back,  had  at  least  given  her 
consent  to  a  scheme  involving  possibly  a  massacre  of 
the  whole  foreign  population  of  Peking  ;  and,  as  has 
already  been  said,  fierce  indignation  was  expressed  at 
the  sight  of  the  intimacy  springing  up  between  the 
Empress  Dowager  and  the  Legations.2  But,  neverthe- 

1  A  Peking  correspondent,  writing  to  the  North  China  Herald  on 
February  2  8th. 

2  Mrs.   Archibald  Little  puts  the  case  mildly  when  she  writes 
(Round  about  my  Peking  Garden,  p.  57)  :  "The  American  Minister's 
wife  speaks  of  'my  friend  the  Empress  Dowager'  or  « Her  Majesty.' 
But  at  each  fresh  foreign  visit  to  the  Old  Buddha,  as  the  Chinese  call 
the    Empress  Dowager,  Chinese   Christian  women  weep  and  protest 
bitterly,   thinking   of  their    murdered  relations,    whom    they  esteem 
martyr i." 


264   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

less,  the  intimacy  continued  to  grow,  and  receptions 
of  foreign  ladies  in  the  Palace  became  frequent. 
Tze-hi  was  a  most  amiable  hostess  on  all  occasions, 
and  for  those  to  whom  she  took  a  liking  she  could 
not  do  enough.  She  showered  presents  upon  them 
— from  specimens  of  her  own  breed  of  lap-dog,  scrolls 
written  by  her  own  hand,  fans  painted  by  herself, 
jewelry  and  jade  ornaments,  to  gifts  of  flowers,  fruit, 
cakes,  and  tea  on  Chinese  festival-days. 

Beside  loading  with  marks  of  her  favour  those 
among  her  foreign  visitors  of  whom  she  made  friends, 
the  Empress  Dowager  freely  discussed  questions  of 
the  day  with  them,  and  none  more  freely  than  that  of 
education  in  China.  This  she  not  only  expressed 
her  firm  intention  of  liberalizing,  but  actually  set 
about  remodelling  on  Western  lines  before  she  had 
been  back  in  the  Forbidden  City  more  than  a  few 
weeks. 

Tze-hi,  in  fact,  declared  herself  a  Reformer  ! 

The  foreign  critics  who  are  most  unfavourably 
disposed  toward  the  late  Empress  Dowager  of  China 
accuse  her  of  having,  after  the  return  to  Peking, 
made  a  great  pretence  of  being  a  sincere  advocate  of 
reforms,  restrained  by  her  country's  inability  to  move 
otherwise  than  slowly,  while  as  a  matter  of  fact  she 
was  nothing  of  the  kind.  They  do  not  fail  to  admire 
the  ingenious  opportunism  of  her  conduct,  and  her 
extreme  cleverness  in  using  for  the  furtherance  of 
her  own  ends  both  the  presence  of  foreigners  in  her 
capital  on  a  more  privileged  footing  than  before  and 


THE   RETURN   TO   PEKING          265 

the  native  demand  for  better  methods  in  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  Empire  which  the  Boxer  catas- 
trophe had  awakened.  Putting  her  down,  however, 
as  at  heart  steadfastly  anti-foreign  and  anti-reform, 
they  can  only  see  in  her  attitude  from  the  begin- 
ning of  the  year  1902  an  exhibition  of  skilful 
posing. 

In  justice  to  these  critics — or  to  some  of  the  best 
known  among  them  at  least — it  must  be  admitted 
that  they  did  not  at  the  time  hesitate  to  denounce 
the  apparent  fervour  for  new  things  as  a  sham, 
especially  in  1906,  the  year  when  there  was  so  much 
rejoicing  over  China's  progress.  As  it  will  be 
necessary  to  return  to  the  subject  later  when  we 
endeavour  to  examine  somewhat  more  closely  into 
the  Dowager  Empress's  character,  we  will  say  no  more 
here  than  that  if  Tze-hi  was  merely  posing  during 
the  period  1902-8,  as  these  hostile  critics  allege,  she 
had  evidently  studied  her  pose  marvellously  well. 
But  first  her  actual  programme  of  reforms  must  be 
dealt  with  in  another  chapter. 


CHAPTER   XVIII 
LAST    YEARS:   THE    EMPRESS   AS   REFORMER 

f  I  "'ZE-HI  lost  no  time  after  her  return  from  exile 
in  the  provinces  before  setting  to  work  to  show 
that  the  lessons  of  her  period  of  adversity  had  not 
been  disregarded.  The  criticism  which  would  most 
naturally  occur  to  an  observer  of  the  events  of  1900 
was  that  China  suffered  so  heavily  as  she  did  in 
consequence  of  her  ignorance,  that  what  she  most 
lacked  was  practical  wisdom.  The  Court  had  not 
been  back  in  Peking  a  month  when  an  edict  appeared, 
directly  inspired  by  the  Empress  Dowager,  which 
provided  for  the  selection  of  boys  from  the  Manchu 
Banner  families  to  be  sent  abroad  at  the  expense  of 
the  Government  for  travel  and  study.  They  were 
instructed  to  "  avail  themselves  of  the  opportunity 
of  familiarizing  themselves  with  foreign  methods 
and  enlarging  their  experience,  so  that  they  may  assist 
the  Court's  design  of  cultivating  talent  for  the 
services  of  the  Administration."  Never  yet  had 
Manchus  been  encouraged  to  go  abroad,  except  in 
one  of  those  edicts  of  Kwanghsu  which  the  Empress 
herself  had  cancelled  four  years  earlier. 

Another    revolutionary    decree     (also    previously 

introduced    by    Kwanghsu    and    cancelled     by    the 

266 


THE   EMPRESS   AS    REFORMER       267 

Empress)  was  that  abolishing  the  Literary  Essay  and 
substituting  essays  on  modern  subjects  in  the  public 
examinations.  This  was  promulgated  in  the  August 
after  the  return  to  Peking.  Other  measures  followed, 
reconstructing  the  whole  examination  system  which 
had  been  China's  pride  for  so  many  centuries — over 
twenty,  if  the  tradition  ascribing  its  foundation  to 
the  Han  dynasty  be  correct — and  setting  up  schools 
of  Western  learning  all  over  the  country.  At  Peking 
itself  there  were  established  annual  competitions  for 
degrees  among  students  returned  from  foreign 
countries,  the  first  being  held  in  1906.  Only  four- 
teen presented  themselves  on  this  occasion  ;  but  next 
year  forty- two  came  forward,  of  whom  twenty-three 
had  been  educated  in  Japan,  sixteen  in  the  United 
States,  two  in  England,  and  one  in  Germany,  and  as 
a  result  eight  received  the  cbinshib  (commonly  trans- 
lated "  Doctor's ")  degree.  The  candidates  were 
allowed  to  submit  their  papers  in  the  language  of  the 
country  in  which  they  had  been  educated,  and  as 
examples  of  the  questions  asked  them  we  may  take 
the  following  :— 

(1)  Define    Philosophy    and    distinguish    it    from 
Science  and  Ethics.     Explain  the  following  systems  of 
philosophical   thought  :    Dualism,  Theism,  Idealism, 
Materialism,   Pantheism,  Agnosticism.     How  would 
you  classify,  according  to  the  Western  method,  the 
following  Chinese  philosophers  :  Chuang  Tzu,  Chan 
Tsai,  Chu  Tzu,  Su  Tzu,  and  Wang  Yang-ming  ? 

(2)  Explain  fully  Mill's  four  methods  of  induction, 


268   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

and   mention  some  of  the   scientific  discoveries  and 
inventions  which  may  be  directly  traced  to  them. 

One  of  the  essay-subjects  set  before  these  students 
was  :  "  Is  it  expedient  for  China  to  adopt  a  system  of 
compulsory  education  ? " 

That  the  Empress  Dowager,  with  her  reputation 
for  Chinese  scholarship  of  the  strictest  sort,  should  be 
responsible  in  any  degree  for  an  examination  which 
demanded  from  her  subjects  the  knowledge  necessary 
to  answer  such  questions  was  surely  remarkable. 
And  not  only  the  male  portion  of  the  population  was 
affected  by  the  new  order  of  things.  In  Peking 
several  of  the  great  Manchu  ladies,  headed  by  the 
Imperial  Princess  herself,  opened  girls'  schools  in 
their  own  palaces,  so  that  by  1907  there  were  no  less 
than  seventeen  such  institutions  in  the  capital.  Tze- 
hi  herself  made  a  grant  of  one  hundred  thousand 
Taels  (in  round  figures,  ^15,000)  from  her  privy 
purse  for  the  establishment  of  a  normal  school  for 
girls,  only  stipulating  that  two  of  the  subjects  taught 
should  be  sericulture  and  embroidery. 

Even  more  astonishing  than  her  educational 
changes  were  those  which  the  Empress  proposed  to 
make  in  the  government  of  her  country.  Chief  of 
all,  she  determined  to  give  China  a  Constitution,  and 
appointed  a  special  commission  under  the  presidency  of 
the  "  Duke  "  Tsaitse  and  of  Tuan-fang, l  that  en- 

1  Last  year  dismissed  from  the  viceroyalty  of  Chihli,  after  being 
severely  censured  for  causing  photographs  to  be  taken  of  the  Dowager 
Empress's  funeral  and  for  other  offences  against  the  spirits  of  the  dead  ! 


THE   EMPRESS    AS    REFORMER       269 

lightened  Manchu  official  who  had  in   1900  so  ably 
backed  up  the  efforts  of  the  Chinese  Viceroys,  Yuan 
Shi-kai,  Chang  Chih-tung,  Liu  Kun-yi,  and  Li  Hung- 
chang   to    keep    on    good    terms    with    the   Western 
Powers   while    the    Boxer    horde    was    dominating 
Peking.     The  duty  of  this  commission  was  to  travel 
round  the  world  and  examine  the   Constitutions  of 
the  great  civilized  nations  with  a  view  to  selecting 
the  best  model  for  China  to  imitate.     The  commis- 
sioners on  their   return  in  June,  1906,  concluded  a 
vast  report,  extending  to  one  hundred  and  twenty 
volumes,  by  recommending  Japan's   Constitution  as 
most  suitable  for  China.     In  September  an  edict  was 
put  forth  promising  the  issue  of  such  a  Constitution 
at  an  early  date.     Much  scepticism,  of  course,  was 
expressed  by  European  critics  as  to  the  likelihood  of 
a  fulfilment  of  this  promise  ;    and   it  is  true  that, 
although  there  were  other  proclamations  issued  during 
her  lifetime  in  which  she  spoke  of  the  coming  of  the 
Constitution,  it  was  not  until  after  she  had  died  and 
the  new  reign  had  opened  that  an  edict  was  pub- 
lished announcing  the  Imperial  intention  of  carrying 
out  a   definite  programme,  beginning  with   the  in- 
auguration of  an  Imperial  Assembly  in  the  October  of 
the  present  year  and  leading  up  to  the  final  establish- 
ment of  Constitutional  government  in  China  in  1917. 
If,    however,    the   country    had    to    wait   for    this 
greatest  of  all  governmental  changes,  Tze-hi  showed 
no   hesitation    in    pressing   forward    reforms    in    the 
administrative  system,  which,  if  less  in   magnitude, 


270   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

were  yet  of  no  small  importance.  Indeed,  she 
refused  to  tolerate  the  advice  of  those  who  pleaded 
for  a  moderation  of  the  pace.  In  the  year  of  the 
Constitutional  Commission's  report,  another  Imperial 
commission  had  been  appointed  to  consider  what 
improvements  could  be  made  in  the  organization  and 
working  of  the  great  departments  of  the  capital. 
These  commissioners  found  their  labours  considerably 
increased  by  the  opposition  of  many  of  the  highly 
placed  Manchu  dignitaries.  Prince  Ching  and  his  son 
Tsaichen,  it  is  true,  with  one  or  two  other  princes  of 
the  blood,  were  in  favour  of  drastic  changes,  and 
Prince  Chun  also  lent  them  his  support — somewhat 
timidly,  it  was  said.  But  the  opposition  was  keen, 
and  when  the  report  was  ready  four  out  of  the  six 
members  of  the  Grand  Council,  including  the  power- 
ful Manchu  Tieh  Liang,  President  first  of  the  Board 
of  Revenue  and  then  of  the  Ministry  of  War,  were 
anxious  to  suppress  it.  News  of  the  situation  came 
to  the  Dowager  Empress's  ears,  whereon  early  in 
November  she  summoned  the  Councillors  into  her 
presence  and  at  once  demanded  who  among  them 
were  for  the  reforms  recommended.  Only  Prince 
Ching  and  one  Chinese  colleague  declared  that  they 
were,  the  other  four  remaining  silent.  Concerning 
the  scene  which  followed  we  take  leave  to  quote  the 
report  given  in  the  North-China  Herald1 : — 

"  The  Empress   Dowager's   eyes  shone  ominously 
on  the  recalcitrant  Councillors  when  she  gave  them 
1  "Notes  on  Native  Affairs,"  November  6th,  1906. 


THE   EMPRESS   AS    REFORMER       271 

to  understand  that  she  and  His  Majesty  were  strongly 
in  favour  of  executing  the  reforms  and  would  there- 
fore brook  no  opposition.  In  reply,  the  obstruction- 
ists declared  that  they  would  rather  lose  their  places 
in  the  Council  than  allow  themselves  to  be  put  down 
in  future  histories  as  bad  councillors  to  Their 
Majesties.  When  Her  Majesty  heard  the  declaration 
she  replied  :  "  Be  it  so  !  You  [mentioning  the  four] 
are  excused  from  further  attendance  in  the  Grand 
Council,  and  we  would  also  impress  upon  you  the 
inadvisability  of  making  any  more  obstructions 
against  reform,  for  we  are  determined  to  make  it  a 
success  for  our  own  and  for  the  Empire's  sake." 

On  the  following  day  two  edicts  appeared,  one 
dismissing  the  four  Conservatives  from  the  Grand 
Council,  and  the  other  sanctioning  the  reforms  sug- 
gested by  the  Imperial  Commission. 

Whether  the  Empress  Dowager  herself  took  any 
active  interest  in  Army  reform  is  uncertain  ;  but  the 
man  on  whom  she  now  most  relied,  outside  the  circle 
of  the  Imperial  family,  Yuan  Shi-kai,1  was  the  most 

1  The  extent  of  his  Imperial  mistress's  trust  in  him  may  be  partly 
gauged  by  the  number  of  posts  which  he  held  at  the  beginning  of 
1906.  He  was  not  only  Viceroy  of  Chihli  and  head  of  the  Peiyang 
military  and  naval  administrations,  but  also  Associate  High  Com- 
missioner of  the  Army  Reorganization  Council ;  Vice-Commissioner 
of  the  Peking  Banner  Corps  Reorganization  Bureau ;  Associate 
Director  of  the  proposed  Tientsin-Chinkiang  Railway ;  Associate 
Commissioner  for  Tariff  Revision ;  and  occupant  of  some  minor 
offices  in  addition.  He  was  said  at  this  period  to  be  anxious  to  give 
up  all  except  his  Chihli  and  Peiyang  duties,  although  he  would  thereby 
sacrifice  more  than  £20,000  a  year  in  salary,  because  he  had  not 


272    GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

successful  of  China's  military  organizers,  and  did 
invaluable  work  in  the  vast  sphere  over  which  he 
had  personal  control.  In  the  provinces  generally  the 
task  of  reorganization  was  left  to  the  local  authorities, 
and  hence,  although  there  was  much  keenness  dis- 
played here  and  there,  concentration  of  purpose  was 
lacking.  Still  worse,  there  was  a  fatal  lack  of  funds. 
As  Lord  Charles  Beresford  had  pointed  out  when  he 
visited  China  in  1898-9,  it  was  essential  that  financial 
reform  should  precede  Army  reform  ;  but  financial  re- 
form in  such  a  home  of  official  corruption  as  the 
Chinese  Empire  was  too  great  a  task  for  Tze-hi  to 
tackle — especially  since  her  own  privy  purse  benefited 
so  largely  from  the  existing  state  of  corruption.  It 
is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  the  work  of  putting 
the  Army  into  an  effective  condition  still  remains  at 
the  present  day  one  of  China's  most  arduous 
duties. 

Some  of  the  steps  taken  to  "  modernize "  the 
troops  during  the  Dowager's  last  years  were  rather 
ludicrous.  For  instance,  at  the  beginning  of  1906 
we  read  that  in  future  air-guns  are  to  be  substituted 
for  the  bows  and  arrows  formerly  used  in  the  com- 
petition for  military  degrees  among  the  Manchu 
Bannermen,  the  reason  for  this  half-measure  being 

enough  time  for  his  work  (North-China  Herald,  January  24th,  1906). 
In  1907,  on  the  occasion  of  the  Empress's  seventy-third  birthday, 
Yuan  received  the  decoration  of  the  three-eyed  peacock's  feather. 
The  Yellow  Riding  Jacket  he  was  awarded  as  early  as  1902.  No 
Chinese  except  Li  Hung-chang  received  as  many  honours  as  Yuan 
Shi-kai. 


THE   EMPRESS   AS    REFORMER       273 

that  firearms  were  not  permitted  within  the  sacred 
precincts  of  the  Imperial  palaces  (where  the  com- 
petitions were  held  under  the  presidency  of  the 
Emperor)  for  fear  of  disturbing  the  serenity  and  re- 
pose of  the  Imperial  occupants  ! 

A  reform  which  the  majority  of  Western  ob- 
servers, including  the  whole  of  the  missionary  body 
in  China,  hailed  with  expressions  of  delight  was  the 
order  for  the  entire  suppression  of  opium-smoking. 
In  September,  1906,  Tze-hi  declared  that  "within 
ten  years'  time  this  injurious  filth  must  be  swept 
away."  In  March,  1908,  there  was  an  important 
supplementary  .proclamation.  The  earlier  decree, 
while  allowing  a  period  of  ten  years  for  the  stamp- 
ing out  of  the  evil  and  commanding  that  considera- 
tion should  be  given  by  officials  to  the  question  of 
the  land  given  up  to  poppy-cultivation,  had  omitted 
to  indicate  how  the  Government  proposed  to  meet 
the  gigantic  loss  of  revenue  necessary  if  its  pro- 
gramme was  to  be  carried  out — a  fact  upon  which 
hostile  Western  critics  seized  at  once  as  evidence  of 
China's  insincerity  in  the  matter.  The  decree  of 
1908,  however,  said:  "As  for  the  manner  of  ob- 
taining other  revenue  to  make  up  for  the  losses  on 
that  from  opium,  We  hereby  order  the  Ministry  of 
Finance  to  arrange  about  this  matter " — adding  : 
"  No  matter  how  difficult  the  task,  We  must  succeed 
in  entirely  eradicating  the  opium  habit  within  the 
limit  of  time  set  by  Imperial  Edict."  A  month 
after  the  decree  we  hear  of  the  Empress  Dowager 


274   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

calling  to  her  the  Special  Commissioners  entrusted 
with  the  duty  of  making  the  prohibition  of  opium 
effective,  and  asking  them  what  measures  they  were 
taking.  When  they  had  delivered  to  her  their  re- 
port, she  remarked  that  delay  would  be  fatal,  and 
warned  them  that  severe  punishment  would  attend 
upon  any  neglect  on  their  part.  She  had  already 
insisted  on  all  the  Palace  eunuchs  giving  up  the 
drug,  on  penalty  of  a  hundred  blows  with  a  heavy 
rod,  followed  by  permanent  expulsion  from  the 
palaces,  while  officials  known  to  indulge  in  opium- 
smoking  were  doomed  to  disgrace. 

There  was  hardly  a  department  of  public  or  private 
life  in  China  which  was  not  affected  by  Tze-hi's  zeal 
for  reformation,  from  women's  fashions  (as  early  as 
February,  1902,  she  issued  an  edict  against  foot- 
binding)  and  men's  indulgences,  like  opium,  to  office- 
holding  under  Government,  a  wholesale  abolition  of 
superfluous  posts,  both  in  Peking  and  in  the  provinces, 
being  carried  out  by  her  orders,  in  face  of  the  most 
strenuous  opposition  ;  and  she  was  contemplating  in 
1907,  it  was  reported,  the  reform  of  the  currency, 
though  she  died  too  early  to  mature  her  plans.  In 
some  respects  she  appeared  to  follow  very  closely  the 
lines  laid  down  by  her  nephew  in  1898,  in  others  she 
actually  went  beyond  him,  as  in  the  matter  of  opium- 
suppression  and  in  her  policy  of  merging  the  five 
million  Manchus  resident  in  China  in  the  rest  of  the 
nation.  In  the  latter  case  she  began  by  removing  the 
hitherto  prevailing  prohibition  against  the  inter- 


THE   EMPRESS    AS    REFORMER       275 

marriage  of  Manchus  and  Chinese,  and,  as  we  shall 
see,  actually  promoted  a  most  striking  Chinese- 
Manchu  union.1  She  abolished  the  distinctively 
Manchu  garrisons  in  the  big  provincial  cities ;  and  in 
early  1908  she  ordered  the  Bannermen  generally  to 
learn  trades,  in  order  to  be  able  to  support  themselves 
instead  of  depending  upon  an  allowance  from  the 
Throne  for  their  livelihood.  It  is  curious  to  reflect 
that  this  same  Empress  who  was  now  insisting  upon 
the  breaking-down  of  the  walls  of  Manchu  exclusive- 
ness  was  the  same  under  whom,  during  the  period  of 
reaction  following  the  Liberal  programme  of  1898,  the 
tacit  understanding  hitherto  existing  as  to  the  sharing 
of  high  offices  between  Manchus  and  Chinese  had 
been  largely  ignored  and  a  quite  undue  proportion  of 
posts  given  to  the  Manchus. 

Tze-hi  refused  to  go  so  far  as  to  abolish  the  whole 
Banner  organization,  which  Prince  Tsaichen  proposed 
to  her  should  be  done.  In  fact,  she  took  the  sugges- 
tion in  very  bad  part  at  first,  and  roundly  charged 
both  the  Prince  and  his  father  with  revolutionary  and 
anti-dynastic  designs.  Old  Prince  Ching,  in  terror, 
sent  in  his  resignation  to  the  Grand  Council,  over 
which  he  presided.  But  the  Empress,  annoyed  as 
she  had  been,  declined  to  part  with  a  trusty  friend,  and 
seized  the  occasion  of  his  next  birthday  to  treat  him 
with  especial  favour  as  a  sign  of  her  forgiveness.  As 

1  See  p.  292.  Another  notable  example  of  the  new  order  of 
things  was  the  marriage  of  Natung's  daughter  to  Li  Koh-chieh, 
a  grandson  of  Li  Hung-chang. 


276   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

for  Tsaichen,  not  long  afterwards  one  of  the  censors 
addressed  to  the  Throne  a  severe  impeachment  of  his 
conduct,  whereon  he  resigned  his  Presidency  of  the 
Board  of  Commerce  and  retired  into  private  life. 
His  father  now  again  offered  his  own  resignation,  but 
again  was  told  by  the  Dowager  that  she  could  not 
spare  him. 

While  considering  the  subject  of  the  Empress 
Dowager  as  reformer,  we  must  note  that  in  one  respect 
she  showed  a  wisdom  greatly  superior  to  her  nephew's. 
Unlike  him,  she  did  not  attempt  to  rush  all  her 
changes  through  in  a  period  of  a  few  months. 
Kwanghsu  had  provoked  the  criticism  that  he  appeared 
to  desire  not  to  take  a  conciliatory  course,  but  to  com- 
pel submission.  He  had  relied  on  the  Young  China 
Party's  unsound  estimate  of  the  strength  of  the 
opposition  and  their  very  imperfect  assimilation  of 
Western  ideas.  The  Dowager  prudently  spread  her 
changes  over  a  number  of  years,  and  where  she 
sought  advice  sought  it  from  the  moderate  politicians, 
well  acquainted  alike  with  their  own  countrymen  and 
with  foreigners.  She  met  with  fierce  opposition  and 
innumerable  difficulties,  but  faced  them  firmly  ;  as 
when  we  see  her  issuing  a  rescript  in  June,  1906, 
speaking  of  "  the  great  hardships  of  the  mass  of 
the  people  owing  to  the  heavy  financial  demands 
made  on  them  by  the  Government  for  the  payment  of 
the  foreign  indemnities  and  the  expenses  of  carrying 
out  administrative  reforms,"  but  stating,  nevertheless, 
that  "  these  reforms  must  not  be  abandoned "  and 


THE   EMPRESS    AS    REFORMER       277 

that  "  the  money  required  for  them  must  be  levied 
upon  the  people."  When  she  had  made  up  her  mind 
to  innovate,  she  was  not  lightly  to  be  turned  from  her 
purpose. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

LAST    YEARS— Continued 

TT  might  be  deduced,  merely  from  an  examination 
of  the  internal  political  history  of  China  from  the 
beginning  of  1902,  that  the  Emperor  Kwanghsu  was 
coming  to  the  front  again.  Foreigners,  when  they 
learnt  that  Puchun  had  really  been  cut  off  from  the 
succession  in  November,  1901,  had  hoped  to  see  this 
happen.  But  nothing  of  the  kind  was  witnessed, 
either  immediately  after  the  return  of  the  Court  to 
Peking  or  later.  The  Empress  Dowager  had  emerged 
from  behind  the  screen  which  had  hitherto  hidden 
her  almost  completely  from  foreign  gaze,  and  in  the 
shadow  of  her  figure  the  Emperor  was  observed 
nearly  as  much  as  when  he  was  still  a  captive  languish- 
ing in  his  island  palace.  He  was  not  deposed  in 
name,  but  he  wielded  as  little  influence  as  if  he  had 
been  so  in  fact.  In  certain  purely  ornamental  roles  it 
was  necessary  that  he  should  figure.  No  one  but  he, 
as  being  the  Emperor,  could  offer  the  great  sacrifices 
to  the  Elements  and  the  Ancestral  Shades.  But 
Tze-hi,  even  if  she  had  been  able,  had  no  desire 
to  relieve  her  nephew  of  these  solemn  but  scarcely 
power-conferring  duties.  Where  she  took  care  to 

usurp  his  place  was  wherever  the  usurpation  brought 

278 


LAST   YEARS  279 

with  it  a  gratification  of  her  ambition  to  rule  over 
men.  Kwanghsu  here  was  not  allowed  to  taste 
authority.  When  seen  at  official  assemblies  and 
receptions  he  always  sat  near,  but  always  below,  Tze- 
hi ;  and,  except  at  the  audiences  to  the  foreign  diplo- 
matic body,  it  was  to  her,  not  to  him,  that  addresses 
and  State  documents  were  handed.  Mrs.  Headland, 
whose  opportunities  for  learning  the  truth  of  affairs 
were  shared  by  few  if  any  foreigners,  writes  :  "  Every 
time  we  were  in  the  Palace  the  Emperor  accompanied 
the  Dowager  Empress — not  by  her  side,  but  a  few 
steps  behind  her.  When  she  sat,  he  always  remained 
standing  a  few  paces  in  the  rear,  and  never  presumed 
to  sit  unless  asked  by  her  to  do  so.  ...  No  minister 
of  State  touched  forehead  to  floor  as  he  spoke  in 
hushed  and  trembling  voice  to  him,  no  obsequious 
eunuchs  knelt  when  coming  into  his  presence  ;  but 
on  the  contrary,  I  have  again  and  again  seen  him 
crowded  against  the  wall  by  these  obsequious  servants 
of  Her  Majesty.  ...  I  am  told  that  at  times  the 
Empress  Dowager  invites  the  Emperor  to  dine  with 
her,  and  on  such  occasions  he  is  forced  to  kneel  at 
the  table  at  which  she  is  seated,  eating  only  what  she 
gives  him."1 

So,  while  reforms  went  on  at  a  steady  pace,  the 
one-time  reforming  Emperor  was  allowed  to  take  no 
share  in  the  government.  He  was  less  of  a  prisoner 

1  Court  Life  in  China,  pp.  166-8.  Mrs.  Headland  is  careful  to 
explain  that  on  this  last  point  the  Empress's  conduct  was  dictated  by 
custom,  not  by  malice. 


280   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

now  than  in  the  reactionary  period  of  1898-1900,  in 
that  he  had  exchanged  an  island  for  a  place  in  the 
retinue  of  Tze-hi ;  but  he  was  none  the  less  a  non- 
entity now  than  in  1898-1900.  To  guard  against 
the  possibility  of  his  attempting  to  interfere  in  any 
way  with  affairs,  not  only  did  his  aunt,  when  they 
were  together,  watch  him  as  persistently  as  a  cat 
watches  a  mouse,  but  also  she  had  his  movements 
spied  upon  by  the  eunuchs  when  he  was  out  of  her 
sight.  Kwanghsu  seemed  completely  cowed.  It  was 
suspected  that  he  was  still  nourishing  his  designs  of 
revenge,  especially  against  Yuan  Shi-kai ;  but  he  gave 
no  outward  sign.  Perhaps  the  rumours  were  true 
which  made  Kwanghsu  about  this  period  undergo  a 
violent  mental  and  moral  crisis,  accompanied  by  a 
temporary  loss  of  memory  and  extreme  nervous 
prostration.  It  was  said  that  for  several  weeks  he 
lay  in  his  own  apartments  in  the  Palace,  buried  in 
cushions,  for  the  most  part  gazing  vacantly  into  space, 
but  giving  way  at  intervals  to  paroxysms  of  tears. 
In  one  of  his  worst  attacks  he  uttered  a  shriek  which 
brought  the  eunuchs  of  his  suite  flying  to  his  room, 
to  be  greeted  by  him  with  frenzied  blows  and  a 
shower  of  valuable  vases  and  other  treasures  about 
their  ears  before  he  would  allow  himself  to  be  led 
away  to  one  of  the  other  palaces  for  a  change  of 
scene.  The  doctors  called  in  by  the  Dowager  could 
suggest  no  better  treatment  for  their  patient  than  a 
more  nourishing  diet.  They  cannot  be  blamed,  how- 
ever, for  finding  no  cure.  For  the  hapless  Kwanghsu 


LAST   YEARS  281 

was  beyond  all  medicine — perhaps  ever  since  he  made 
his  gallant  but  premature  attempt  to  reform  his 
Empire  and  was  checkmated  by  his  aunt. 

As  if  to  prove  that,  in  spite  of  her  embarkation  on 
a  policy  of  far-reaching  reform,  she  had  not  forgotten 
1898  nor  forgiven  those  reformers  who  had  threatened 
her  with  extinction  then,  in  June,  1904,  the  Empress 
Dowager  published  an  edict  stating  that,  in  her  desire 
to  commemorate  the  year  of  her  seventieth  birthday 
by  bestowing  a  mark  of  Imperial  mercy  even  on  those 
who  had  offended  against  the  laws  of  China,  she  now 
pardoned  all  who  were  implicated  in  the  events  of 
1998  except  "the  rebels  Kang  Yu-wei,  Liang  Chi- 
chao,  and  Sun  Wen."  1 

Already  in  the  summer  of  1902  it  was  reported 
that  an  attempt  had  been  made  to  decoy  Kang 
Yu-wei,  then  at  Darjeeling,  back  to  Peking  by  means 
of  a  pretended  telegram  of  recall  in  the  Emperor's 
name.  Certainly  Kang  came  as  far  north  as  Hong- 
kong, where  he  was  met  by  local  leaders  of  the 
Reform  Party  and  persuaded  to  return  to  India. 

1  Liang  Chi-chao  is  one  of  Kang  Yu-wei's  chief  supporters,  living 
(until  very  recently  at  least)  in  exile  in  the  Straits  Settlements,  while 
Sun  Wen  is  better  known  to  foreigners  as  Dr.  Sun  Yat-sen.  With 
regard  to  Liang  Chi-chao,  it  is  worthy  of  note  that  in  October,  1907, 
at  a  meeting  of  Chinese  reformers  in  exile  in  Tokyo  he  was  driven  off 
the  platform  as  a  reactionary  and  a  traitor.  It  was  not  so  much  that 
his  views  had  changed  since  the  day  nine  years  ago  when  he  fled  to 
escape  the  death  penalty  at  the  hands  of  the  Dowager  Empress's 
adherents  ;  but  they  had  now  become  part  of  the  official  programme  of 
the  Peking  Government,  and  so  appeared  reactionary  to  the  extreme 
reformers  of  the  year  1 907. 


282    GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

The  story  of  the  telegram,  perhaps,  requires  con- 
firmation. The  edict  two  years  later,  however,  is  an 
indisputable  testimony  as  to  the  Dowager  Empress's 
state  of  mind. 

This  exhibition  of  vindictiveness,  coupled  with  a 
crusade  (her  second)  against  the  native  newspapers, 
which  she  considered  too  free  in  their  comments  on 
State  affairs — in  the  course  of  which  she  had  one 
journalist  at  Peking  beaten  so  severely  that  he  died1 
— very  naturally  displeased  the  foreign  critics  of  the 
Empress.  Yet  it  is  noticeable  that,  in  spite  of  such 
lapses  into  evil  ways,  the  general  ability  of  her  policy 
since  her  restoration  to  Peking  was  so  indisputable 
that  her  detractors  were  deprived  of  one  of  their 
strongest  weapons  against  her.  They  could  no  longer 
call  her  a  bigoted  reactionary,  although  they  might 
(and  did)  cast  doubts  upon  the  genuineness  of  her 
desire  for  China's  progress.  They  could  make  no 
complaint  of  her  attitude  toward  foreign  missions  ; 
for  did  she  not  issue  an  edict,  instructing  the 
Viceroys  and  Governors  to  explain  for  the  benefit  of 
their  subordinates  the  provisions  of  the  various 
treaties  dealing  with  the  missionaries,  and  declaring 
that  converts  and  non-converts  alike  were  children 
and  subjects  of  the  Emperor  and  must  be  treated  by 
the  authorities  without  distinction  or  favour  ?  Since 

1  It  was  stated  last  July  that  "  a  Chinese  publisher  was  about  to 
start  the  first  evening  paper  in  Peking,  to  be  printed  in  red,  which  is 
symbolic  of  happiness."  In  the  Dowager  Empress's  reign  red  might 
have  been  considered  symbolic  of  something  very  different  where 
journalists  were  concerned. 


LAST   YEARS  283 

they  were  thus  unable  to  prosecute  their  campaign 
in  one  way,  we  now  find  her  unrelenting  enemies, 
while  admitting  that  she  was  a  stateswoman  of  very 
high  rank,  concentrating  their  attack  upon  her  moral 
character,  and  by  innuendo  bringing  up  against  her 
the  scurrilous  gossip  of  Peking — and  Peking  can  be 
very  scurrilous  indeed.  In  the  stories  which  were 
hinted  at,  but  not  reproduced,  "  Cobbler's-wax  Li " 
played  a  great  part.  Few  among  the  Empress's 
warmest  admirers  can  fail  to  deplore  the  confidence 
which  she  put  in  this  individual,  whether  he  was  an 
eunuch  or  not.  But  at  the  age  of  seventy  Tze-hi's 
character  might  have  been  expected  to  be  given  a 
respite  from  attack  ;  although  Catherine  of  Russia, 
it  is  true,  was  not  much  younger  when  she  com- 
menced her  "  Platonic  "  affair  with  Zubof,  last  of  her 
favourites. 

One  of  the  stories  about  Li  Lien-ying  and  his 
mistress  at  this  time  has  the  merit  of  being  amusing 
rather  than  scandalous.  It  seems  that  one  of  the 
foreign  representatives  at  Peking  made  a  present  to 
the  Emperor  and  Empress  Dowager  of  a  suit  of 
European  clothes  apiece.  Tze-hi  was  about  to  retire 
to  try  her  new  dress  on,  when  suddenly  Li  appeared 
before  her  and  threw  himself  at  her  feet  with  the 
profound  kowtow  which  was  prescribed  in  her 
presence.  Asked  why  he  was  doing  this,  he  protested 
that  it  would  be  procedure  "  degrading  to  the  majesty 
and  pomp  vested  in  the  person  of  the  Ruler  of  the 
Empire  to  wear  any  clothes  but  those  decreed  by 


284   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

Her  Majesty's  Imperial  predecessors."  At  this  the 
Empress  laughed,  and  told  the  eunuch  that  his 
objections  were  womanish  and  silly.  But  he  con- 
tinued to  kowtow,  and  steadfastly  declared  that  he 
would  knock  his  brains  out  against  the  floor  unless 
she  abandoned  her  intention.  At  last  she  gave  way, 
telling  her  attendants  to  put  the  dress  away  in  her 
wardrobe.  It  was  hardly  worth  while,  she  said,  for 
the  chief  eunuch  to  smash  his  skull  over  so  trivial  a 
matter  ! 

This  is  an  example  of  a  very  harmless  assertion  by 
Li  Lien-ying  of  his  great  authority.  The  most 
mischievous  ways  in  which  he  used  it  were  in  the 
direction  of  foreign  affairs  and  in  filling  his  own 
pocket.  His  fortune  was  estimated  at  between  four 
and  five  millions  sterling,  accumulated  during  a  life 
of  unfailing  accessibility  to  bribes  ;  and  he  was  master 
for  a  long  time  of  most  of  the  pawnshops  of  Peking. 
He  was  popularly  supposed  to  have  been  a  good 
friend  of  the  Boxer  leaders — no  doubt  at  his  own 
price.  The  charm  of  politics  with  him  was  that  it 
was  so  lucrative  a  game.  The  Russian  diplomatists 
in  1902  saw  their  chance  with  him  in  the  matter  of 
Manchuria.  Having  lost  the  support  of  the  other 
Li  (who  if  subsidized  by  them,  as  alleged,  at  least 
took  the  money  with  the  reflection  that  he  was 
outwitting  them),  they  approached  the  head  eunuch 
and  promised  him,  it  was  said,  a  million  Taels  a  year 
if  he  could  induce  the  Empress  Dowager  to  give  her 
assent  to  the  Manchurian  Convention.  It  was  signed 


THE   EMPRESS  DOWAGER,   REPRESENTING  THE  GODDESS  OF  MERCY, 
SUPPORTED   BY  LI   LIEN-YING  (ON  THE  RIGHT)  AND  TWO  COURT  LADIES 


p.  a84 


LAST   YEARS  285 

in  the  April  following  the  Court's  return  to  Peking 
and  ratified  in  the  following  June. 

Even  Li  Lien-ying,  however,  at  last  found  that  his 
power  had  limits  when  compared  with  that  of  the 
great  Empress  whom  he  served.  His  fall  came  about 
in  the  spring  of  1906.  There  was  much  talk  about 
revolutionary  plots  when  that  year  opened,  and  one 
day  a  discovery  of  bombs  was  made  within  the  very 
precincts  of  the  Six  Palaces.  In  a  state  of  great  anger 
the  Dowager  summoned  Li  into  her  presence  and 
scolded  him  vigorously  for  his  neglect  of  duty,  telling 
him  that  only  his  long  and  faithful  services  saved 
him  from  instant  death.  She  sent  him  from  her  with 
peremptory  orders  to  discover  instantly  the  guilty 
parties.  The  head  eunuch  went  out  and,  laying  hands 
on  four  of  his  juniors  whose  actions  of  late  he  declared 
to  have  been  "suspicious,"  had  them  beaten  to  death. 
He  then  went  back  and  reported  to  his  mistress  what 
he  had  done.  She  listened  to  him  in  silence,  one  of 
her  most  effective  weapons  when  she  was  gravely  dis- 
pleased. At  this  Li  waxed  anxious,  and  finally  broke 
down.  He  had  grown  too  old,  he  protested,  and  was 
no  longer  fit  to  do  his  work.  He  therefore  begged  to 
be  allowed  to  resign.  The  Dowager  gave  him  per- 
mission to  withdraw,  and  before  a  quarter  of  an  hour 
had  elapsed  sent  him  a  rescript  in  her  own  handwrit- 
ing appointing  him  to  the  post  of  Inspector  of  the 
Iho  Palace,  his  duties  at  Peking  falling  to  another  of 
her  eunuchs,  known  as  Tsui  or  Tsui  An.  Li,  how- 
ever, though  retiring  into  obscurity,  took  with  him 


286    GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

enormous  riches.  He  had  lost  some  fine  property  in 
Peking  in  1900,  but  had  ample  consolation  still  left 
to  him  in  ready  cash.  We  shall  hear  of  him  again  at 
the  time  of  the  Empress's  death. 

It  has  been  said  that  Li  Lien-ying  was  partly 
instrumental  in  the  early  signature  of  the  Manchurian 
Convention  by  China.  It  is  not  our  intention  to 
enter  upon  the  history  of  China's  foreign  affairs 
during  the  closing  years  of  the  Dowager  Empress's 
reign.  We  shall  leave  untouched,  therefore,  the 
results  of  this  Convention,  of  which  the  principal  was 
the  Russo-Japanese  War,  which  robbed  China  of 
Manchuria,  if  not  for  ever,  at  least  for  many  years. 
But  we  may  note  that  the  difficulties  arising  from  the 
signature  of  the  Convention  so  troubled  the  Dowager 
that  she  decided  to  celebrate  her  seventieth  birthday 
in  the  November  of  1903  instead  of  at  the  proper 
time,  thus  hoping  to  escape  the  ill-luck  which  befel 
her  nine  years  earlier.  Moreover,  eager  to  give  a 
proof  of  her  concern  for  her  country,  threatened  by 
Russia  in  the  North  and  distracted  by  rebellion  in  the 
Kwang  provinces  in  the  South,  she  refused  to  accept 
the  bestowal  on  herself  of  two  more  honorifics,  with 
the  accompanying  additional  income.  In  a  decree  of 
August  3rd,  1903,  she  says  : 

"  My  people  are  in  great  distress,  and  I,  labouring 
night  and  day  in  the  interior  of  the  Palace,  have  no 
heart  for  festivities.  I  am  grieved  to  the  soul  at  My 
people's  sufferings.  How  then  would  it  be  right  for 
Me  to  accept  the  proffered  honorific  title  and  to  act 


LAST   YEARS  287 

contrary  to  the  principles  which  have  guided  Our 
Ancestors  ?  " 

The  officials  of  the  Empire  did  not  refrain,  how- 
ever, from  making  their  customary  gifts  to  their 
mistress.  In  pearls  and  precious  stones  alone  these 
reached  the  value  of  ^"24,000^  so  that  the  Empress 
fared  well  enough  on  the  occasion  of  her  second 
Jubilee. 

In  this  same  year  1903  Tze-hi  suffered  a  great 
personal  loss,  which  must  have  marred  her  enjoyment 
of  the  rejoicings  which  she  endeavoured  on  other 
grounds  to  curtail.  Her  favourite  nephew  Yunglu 
died,  robbing  her  of  her  most  sympathetic  adviser 
among  her  own  kin.2  Only  a  year  previously  she 
had  given  a  new  mark  of  her  high  esteem  for  him 
when  she  induced  Prince  Chun,  brother  of  the  Em- 
peror, to  marry  his  daughter.  That  this  union  had  a 
great  influence  on  the  choice  of  the  heir  to  the 
Dragon  Throne  six  years  later  cannot  be  doubted. 
As  for  the  lady,  now  Dowager  Empress  of  China, 
she  is  evidently  no  narrow-minded  opponent  of  new 
ideas,  for  in  the  present  year  she  has  been  seen  on 
her  way  with  her  suite  to  a  dinner  in  European 
fashion  at  one  of  the  Peking  hotels  ! 

1  It  is  said  that  one  official,  the  Grain  Superintendent,  presented  a 
beautiful  diamond,  which  afterwards  was  discovered  to  be  glass !     It 
was  suggested  by  a  coast-port  wit  that  what  happened  to  him  after- 
wards was  something  which  went  against  the  grain. 

2  A  very  interesting  account  of  Yunglu's  funeral  on  May   I5th, 
1903,  is  given  in  Mrs.  Archibald  Little's   Round  about  my  Teking 
Garden,  pp.  73  ff. 


CHAPTER   XX 

THE   END   OF   ALL 

1P\ID  the  old  Empress  Dowager,  before  she  died, 
begin  to  grow  tired  of  the  hardships  of  rule,  or 
did  even  her  robust  constitution  at  last  commence  to 
fail  her  as  her  eighth  decade  of  life  rolled  on  and 
cause  her  to  think  of  rest  ?  In  the  middle  of  the 
summer  of  1907  there  was  a  strong  belief  prevalent 
in  Peking  that  Her  Imperial  Majesty  intended  to 
abdicate,  and  to  hand  back  to  Kwanghsu  the  reins  of 
power  which  she  had  torn  from  his  grasp  nine  years 
earlier.  It  was  said  that  she  had  fixed  on  the  follow- 
ing Chinese  New  Year's  Day,  February  2nd,  1908,  as 
the  date  for  setting  him  up  again  in  supreme  com- 
mand over  the  affairs  of  China,  and  that  at  the  same 
time  a  new  heir-apparent  would  be  selected.  The  latter 
post  had  remained  vacant  ever  since  the  deposition 
of  Puchun  in  1900,  although  early  in  1906  it  was 
reported  that  the  Empress  Dowager  recently  selected 
several  young  princes  of  the  blood  to  reside  and 
study  in  the  Palace,  so  that  she  might  find  out  who 
was  best  fitted  for  the  part  of  successor  to  Kwanghsu 
when  the  necessity  should  arise.  Gossip  was  busy 
with  the  names  of  three  candidates — Puyi,  infant  son 

of  Prince  Chun  and  Yunglu's  daughter  ;  the  present 

288 


THE   END    OF   ALL  289 

head  of  the  house  of  Kung,  namely  Puwei,  son  by 
adoption  of  the  celebrated  Prince  Kung  (originally 
Tsaiching)  ;  and  Prince  Pulun,  who  is  variously 
stated  to  be  "  a  great-grandson  by  adoption  of  Tao- 
kwang"  and  "grandson  of  an  elder  brother  of  the 
Emperor  Hienfung."  Of  the  three,  Puyi  and  Pulun 
were  most  fancied,  although  there  was  a  strong  body 
of  Manchu  supporters  of  Prince  Kung. 

However,  nothing  occurred  at  the  Chinese  New 
Year  to  confirm  the  rumours  of  the  Dowager's  abdi- 
cation. At  the  beginning  of  January  a  decree  in 
her  name  intimated  that  the  usual  State  Banquet  on 
New  Year's  Day,  on  the  occasion  of  the  Emperor 
and  the  Court  doing  obeisance  and  offering  con- 
gratulations to  Her  Majesty,  would  be  omitted. 
This  was  understood  to  be  on  account  of  the 
Emperor's  indisposition,  and  scarcely  had  New  Year 
passed  when  there  was  a  crop  of  rumours  about  the 
various  doctors  who  had  been  called  in  to  prescribe 
for  him  at  the  command  of  his  aunt.  At  this  time 
no  anxiety  was  felt  about  Tze-hi's  own  condition. 
But  in  the  second  week  in  March  it  was  suddenly 
reported  that  she  too  was  indisposed — chiefly  on 
account  of  certain  diplomatic  difficulties  between 
China  and  Japan,  it  was  said,  arising  out  of  the 
seizure  by  the  Cantonese  authorities  of  the  Tatsu 
Maru,  a  Japanese  vessel  which  the  Chinese  suspected 
of  conveying  arms  and  ammunition  to  the  rebels 
in  the  Kwang  provinces.  The  Japanese  Government 
made  a  vigorous  protest,  China  for  a  time  stood  firm, 


290   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

and  serious  consequences  seemed  inevitable.  The 
Empress  Dowager  took  the  matter  very  much  to 
heart.  According  to  a  Peking  correspondent  of  the 
North  China  Herald,  during  the  course  of  an  interview 
which  she  had  with  Prince  Chun  and  two  other 
Imperial  clansmen  at  this  period,  she  talked  for  over 
an  hour  on  the  subjects  of  China's  critical  position 
and  her  own  advanced  age.  She  twice  burst  into 
tears  and  told  the  princes  that  she  had  of  late  felt 
very  depressed,  and  that  although  she  had  held  the 
reins  of  government  for  over  forty  years  she  was 
now  at  a  complete  loss  what  to  do  to  save  her  coun- 
try. At  the  time  the  correspondent  wrote  the 
Empress  Dowager  was  keeping  her  own  room,  with 
three  doctors  from  the  Imperial  Academy  of  Medicine 
in  attendance.  By  the  end  of  the  month,  however, 
she  was  reported  completely  restored  to  bodily  health, 
though  still  extremely  nervous  about  the  country's 
affairs.  The  situation  in  Peking  itself  was  not  calcu- 
lated to  reassure  her.  During  the  latter  portion  of 
March  a  series  of  fires  in  the  capital  gave  rise  to  sus- 
picions of  incendiarism,  the  guilty  parties,  according 
to  the  favourite  theory,  being  adherents  of  the  violent 
anti-dynastic  reformer,  Dr.  Sun  Yat-sen.  According 
to  the  Astronomical  Board,  indeed,  the  fires  were 
caused  by  the  departure  of  the  fire-god  from  heaven 
to  earth  for  a  period  of  one  hundred  days,  and  they 
would  cease  after  the  god's  return  to  heaven.  This 
explanation  failed  to  appease  the  public.  A  feeling 
of  disquiet  was  general,  and  the  arrest  of  fourteen 


THE   END    OF   ALL  291 

men,  most  of  them  students  lately  returned  from 
Japan,  did  little  to  allay  it.  Tze-hi  gave  personal 
instructions  to  the  President  of  the  Ministry  of  War 
to  increase  the  garrison  entrusted  with  the  care  of  the 
Imperial  Palaces,  and  the  police  force  of  the  capital 
was  also  augmented. 

Away  from  Peking,  too,  in  all  parts  of  the  country 
serious  unrest  was  reported,  and  there  was  plenty  of 
talk  about  impending  revolution.  Dr.  Sun,  it  was 
well  known,  was  wandering  about  on  the  borders 
of  the  native  land  in  which  it  was  certain  death  for 
him  to  set  foot,  and  his  agents  were  found  or  imagined 
to  be  present  everywhere,  arrests  being  made  con- 
stantly. Peking,  however,  remained  the  panic-centre, 
and  it  was  no  doubt  with  feelings  of  considerable 
relief  that  on  May  i3th  the  Emperor  and  Empress 
Dowager  left  for  their  usual  summer  holiday  at  Iho 
Park.  At  this  time  the  Dowager  was  apparently  still 
in  excellent  health,  while  the  Emperor  was  suffering 
severely  from  pains  in  the  feet,  which  prevented 
him  from  walking  about  at  all. 

But  the  visit  to  the  Summer  Palace  did  not  dis- 
tract Tze-hi's  attention  from  Peking  affairs.  A 
curious  story  is  told  of  her  at  this  period.  She  was 
well  aware  of  the  jealousy  existing  between  her  two 
leading  Chinese  subjects,  Yuan  Shi-kai  and  Chang 
Chih-tung,  and  though  Yuan  was  her  favourite  she 
did  not  intend  to  allow  the  more  conservative  Chang 
to  be  alienated  from  the  throne.  Already  when  she 
had  given  Yuan  his  three-eyed  peacock's  feather  she 


292    GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

had  awarded  one  to  Chang  also,  commending  them 
both  for  their  "  pre-eminent  services  to  the  State." 
Now,  seeing  that  there  was  a  danger  of  the  quarrel 
between  the  two  growing  dangerous,  she  took  the 
opportunity  of  them  both  being  in  her  presence  one 
day  for  a  conference  over  State  affairs  to  tell  them 
that  it  was  her  pleasure  that  the  youngest  son  of  one 
and  youngest  daughter  of  the  other  should  be 
betrothed  ;  in  fact,  she  said  she  had  already  asked 
the  Astronomical  Board  to  report  on  the  horoscopes 
of  the  two  children  with  the  view  of  discovering  the 
lucky  betrothal  day  for  them !  This  was  a  plan 
which  she  had  already  tried  with  success  in  the  case 
of  Yuan  Shi-kai  and  his  other  rival,  the  Manchu 
Tieh  Liang,  President  of  the  Ministry  of  War.  In 
the  present  instance,  as  in  that,  the  two  fathers-in-law 
had  nothing  to  do  but  to  submit  to  Her  Majesty's 
wishes  and  patch  up  their  quarrel  with  the  best  grace 
they  could  muster,  unable  to  cope  with  this  mixture 
of  match-making  and  diplomacy  on  the  part  of  their 
Empress. 

During  Tze-hi's  last  summer  holiday  at  the  Iho 
Park  little  occurred  that  was  worthy  of  note.  A 
small  excitement  was  caused  by  her  dismissal  from 
office  and  permanent  banishment  from  her  Palace  of 
her  head  eunuch  Tsui,  who  had  taken  over  Li  Lien- 
y ing's  duties  when  the  latter  asked  to  be  relieved 
of  them,  as  has  been  told,  on  account  of  his  old  age 
and  infirmities.  What  Tsui's  offence  was  no  one 
knew,  but  few  regrets  were  wasted  on  him,  for 


THE   END    OF   ALL  293 

he  was  scarcely  more  popular  than  Li  Lien-ying  had 
been. 

It  was  expected  that  the  return  from  the  Summer 
Palace  to  Peking  would  be  made  about  the  end  of 
September,  and  the  Dalai  Lama  of  Tibet,  an  exile 
from  Lhassa  since  the  British  expedition  thither, 
was  known  to  be  anxious  for  an  interview  with  the 
Emperor  and  Empress  Dowager.  For  the  latter  he 
had  a  number  of  gifts  of  Tibetan  manufacture  to 
present  to  her  on  her  approaching  birthday.  But 
for  some  reason  the  return  of  the  Court  was  delayed 
until  October  had  commenced,  and  the  audience  to 
the  Dalai  Lama,  when  at  last  it  came  about,  was  by 
no  means  as  cordial  as  had  been  expected.  The  head 
of  the  Tibetan  Buddhists  had  hoped,  apparently,  to 
come  to  a  satisfactory  arrangement  with  Peking  about 
the  government  of  Tibet.  Nothing  of  the  kind 
occurred,  and,  as  we  know,  he  is  still,  two  years  later, 
an  exile  from  Lhassa. 

After  this  audience  to  the  Dalai  Lama,  matters 
went  very  quietly  at  Peking  until  the  month  of  the 
Dowager  Empress's  seventy-fourth  birthday  opened. 
Then  suddenly  there  occurred  an  event  which  may 
truly  be  said  to  have  startled  the  whole  civilized 
world,  attracting  to  the  Chinese  capital  the  attention 
even  of  those  who  concerned  themselves  the  least 
with  the  affairs  of  the  Celestial  Empire. 

At  the  beginning  of  November  the  Emperor  was 
reported  to  be  suffering  from  severe  internal  dis- 
orders. The  Imperial  physicians  discovered  a  "  dis- 


294   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

turbance  of  the  balance  between  the  active  and  the 
passive  principles."  Subsequently  a  Western  in- 
terpretration  of  this  Chinese  diagnosis  stated  his 
maladies  to  be  chronic  nephritis  and  neurasthenia, 
complicated  by  diabetes  and  sciatica.  At  the  same 
time  alarming  stories  spread  through  Peking  about 
the  Empress  Dowager  also.  A  slight  congestion  of 
the  brain  appears  to  have  given  rise  to  the  rumours, 
some  of  which  went  so  far  as  to  make  her  out  to  be 
on  the  point  of  death  or  already  dead.  It  was  known 
for  certain  that  she  was  unable  to  leave  her  own 
Palace,  and  that  doctors  were  in  constant  attendance 
upon  her  ;  but  it  seems  that  the  doctors'  visits  were 
paid  not  so  much  on  the  old  Empress's  account  as  to 
keep  her  posted  as  to  the  condition  of  her  nephew. 
The  political  situation  caused  her  the  gravest  anxiety, 
and  no  illness  of  her  own  could  distract  her  thoughts 
from  the  question  of  the  succession  to  the  throne  if 
Kwanghsu  should  die  at  once  and  she  not  be  on  the 
spot  to  direct  affairs. 

With  regard  to  the  Emperor,  after  a  fright  on  the 
loth,  caused  by  the  report  of  a  rapid  turn  for  the 
worse,  hope  was  aroused  again  when  it  was  known, 
through  the  formal  report  in  the  Peking  Gazette  next 
day,  that  he  had  given  an  audience  to  the  Grand 
Council  on  the  I2th.  At  this  Council,  however,  the 
subject  under  discussion  was  that  of  the  succession 
to  the  throne,  and  on  the  i3th  edicts  appeared 
stating  that  Prince  Chun  had  been  appointed  Regent, 
and  that  his  son  Puyi  was  to  be  "  reared  in  the 


THE   END    OF   ALL  295 

Palace  and  taught  in  the  Imperial  Schoolroom."  The 
foreign  Legations  this  day  received  the  following  cir- 
cular notification  from  the  Wai  Wu  Pu  :  "  It  is  the 
excellent  will  of  Tz'u-hsi  Tuan-yu  K'ang-i  Chao-yu 
Chuang-ch'eng  Shou-kung  Ch'in-hsien  Ch'ung-hsi, 
the  great  Empress  Dowager,  that  Tsai-feng,  Prince 
of  Chun,  be  appointed  She  Chang-wang  [i.e.  Prince 
Regent]." 

At  two  o'clock  on  the  afternoon  Kwanghsu's  life  was 
despaired  of,  and  it  was  reported  that  he  had  been 
removed  from  his  own  apartments  to  the  death- 
chamber,  the  "  Pavilion  of  Peaceful  Longevity," 
where  it  behoves  an  Emperor  of  China  to  breathe  his 
last.  Afterwards,  however,  it  was  affirmed,  on  the 
authority  of  the  Palace  officials,  that,  regaining  con- 
sciousness on  the  1 4th  after  a  long  period  of  coma, 
he  had  obstinately  refused  to  allow  himself  to  be 
moved  to  this  pavilion  and  had  died  in  his  own 
quarters,  without  putting  on  the  robes  proper  to  the 
moment  of  an  Imperial  death.  It  was  added  that 
his  relations  with  the  Empress  Dowager  were  strained 
to  the  last,  although  from  her  own  bed  of  sickness 
she  sent  the  old  eunuch  Li  Lien-ying  to  attend  upon 
him.  On  the  morning  of  the  I4th  a  long  edict  came 
out  in  Kwanghsu's  name,  in  which  he  described  how 
his  health  had  been  bad  since  the  preceding  August, 
in  consequence  of  which  he  had  ordered  the  Viceroys 
and  other  high  officials  to  recommend  clever  doctors, 
who  had  gone  to  the  Palace  and  treated  him.  "  But 
their  prescriptions  have  given  no  relief.  .  .  .  There 


296   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

are  ailments  both  external  and  internal,  and  the  breath 
is  choked,  the  stomach  rebellious,  the  back  and  legs 
painful,  the  appetite  failing.  When  we  move  breath- 
ing is  difficult,  and  there  is  coughing  and  panting. 
In  addition  We  have  chills  and  fever,  We  cannot 
sleep,  and  We  suffer  from  a  general  sinking  of  bodily 
strength  which  is  hard  to  bear.  Our  heart  is  very 
impatient,  and  now  the  Tartar  Generals,  Viceroys, 
and  Governors  of  every  province  are  commanded  to 
choose  out  capable  physicians,  regardless  of  official 
rank,  and  to  send  them  quickly  to  Peking  to  await 
the  summons  to  give  medical  aid.  If  any  of  them 
can  bring  about  beneficial  results  they  will  receive 
extraordinary  rewards,  and  the  Tartar  Generals, 
Viceroys,  and  Governors  who  recommended  them 
will  receive  special  favour." 

There  was  no  opportunity  for  these  "  capable 
physicians "  to  show  their  skill.1  According  to  the 
notification  sent  to  the  Legations  next  day  through 
the  medium  of  Prince  Ching,  in  the  name  of  His 
Majesty  Puyi,  it  was  between  the  hours  of  5  and 
7  p.m.  on  the  I4th  that  Kwanghsu  "ascended  on 
the  Dragon  to  be  a  guest  on  high."  An  edict 
published  that  evening  stated  that  since  he  was  dead 
leaving  no  son,  "  there  has  been  no  course  open  but 
to  appoint  Puyi,  son  of  Tsaifeng  the  Prince  Regent, 

1  It  may  be  noted  that  after  the  death  of  the  Emperor  all  the 
doctors  who  had  been  in  attendance  upon  him  were  censured  and 
deprived  of  their  official  ranks,  while  those  recommended  by  the 
Viceroys,  etc.,  were  also  degraded. 


THE   END    OF   ALL  297 

to  be  successor  to  Tungchih  and  also  heir  to  the 
Emperor  Kwanghsu." 

By  this  "  succession  to  Tungchih  "  of  a  prince  in 
the  generation  of  the  Pus1  the  irregularity  committed 
by  the  Empress  Dowager  in  1875,  when  she  elevated 
Kwanghsu,  of  the  Tsai  generation,  to  the  throne, 
was  at  last  rectified.  At  the  Grand  Council's  meeting 
on  the  1 2th  there  was  a  question  of  the  desirability 
of  appointing  another  Pu  prince,  Pulun,  whom  the 
progressives  favoured  as  being  one  of  themselves. 
But  the  Emperor's  influence  was  of  course  in 
favour  of  the  son  of  his  brother  Chun,  who  was  very 
sympathetic  to  him  ;  and  the  Empress  Dowager,  in 
her  last,  liberal  phase,  had  allowed  Chun  to  come  to 
the  front  in  a  way  which  not  only  showed  that  he  was 
not  personally  objectionable  to  her  (she  would  not 
have  married  him  to  a  daughter  of  her  favourite 
Yunglu  had  that  been  so),  but  also  gave  a  distinct 
hint  as  to  the  future  in  store  for  him  and  his  son. 
Puyi  being  only  five  years  of  age  and  his  minority 
therefore  being  necessarily  long,  Prince  Chun,  pro- 
vided he  lived,  was  guaranteed  an  extended  regency 
in  which  to  carry  out  the  regeneration  of  the  Empire 
already  begun  by  his  aunt.  A  certain  continuity  of 
administration  was  thus  secured,  which  might  not 
have  been  the  case  had  Pulun  succeeded  Kwanghsu. 
So  far  Prince  Chun  has  not  disappointed  the  hopes 
which  were  entertained  about  him.  Nor  has  the 
timidity  of  which  he  was  suspected  been  much  in 
1  See  above  page  103  n. 


298    GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

evidence.  In  one  important  matter,1  to  which  we 
shall  come,  he  reversed  the  policy  of  the  Empress 
Dowager.  Otherwise  he  has  governed  China  much 
in  the  same  way  as  she  governed  in  the  last  six  years 
of  her  life.  To  foreigners  he  commended  himself 
since  the  days  when  he  went  on  his  mission  of 
apology  to  Germany  for  the  murder  of  Baron  von 
Ketteler,  when  he  was  recognized  as  an  intelligent, 
enlightened,  and  amiable  young  prince.2 

The  unhappy  Kwanghsu  was  dead,  a  rebel  against 
tradition  to  the  end,  if  the  palace  officials'  reports  are 
to-  be  trusted.  The  woman  who  was  so  largely 
responsible  for  the  wretchedness  of  his  life  survived 
him  by  less  than  twenty-four  hours.  On  Novem- 
ber 1 2th  a  severe  attack  of  paralysis,  affecting  the 
muscles  of  her  face,  had  seized  her.  To  the  doctors 
who  endeavoured  to  reassure  her,  she  is  said  to  have 
expressed  her  conviction  that  her  end  was  at  hand  ; 
and  at  the  very  moment  of  her  nephew's  death  it  was 
generally  known  that  she  was  in  a  most  precarious 

1  Perhaps   we    should    say   two ;    for,   previous   to  sending  Yuan 
Shi-kai  on  sick-leave,  Prince  Chun,  almost  immediately  his  aunt  was 
dead,  had  Li  Lien-ying  and  four  other  eunuchs  arrested  and  sent  to 
the  Board  of  Punishments  to  be  kept  in  custody  as  a  penalty  for  their 
"  undue   interference  with    the   business    of  government."     Li  must 
always  have  known  that  his  hour  was  at  hand  as  soon  as  his  patroness 
died. 

2  I  happened  to  travel,  not  long   after  the  Prince,  in  the  vessel 
which  had  conveyed  him  to  Colombo  on  his  way  to  Germany.     The 
captain  told  me  that  while  he  was  a  passenger  he  showed  considerable 
interest  in  the  then  fashionable  game  of  table-tennis  and  in  the  various 
deck-sports  on  board. 


THE   END    OF   ALL  299 

condition.  But  the  tone  of  an  edict  of  instruction  to 
the  new  monarch  on  the  night  of  the  I4th  gave  rise 
to  hopes  that  she  was  still  vigorous.  Perhaps  this 
was  merely  her  final  rally.  Next  morning  a  collapse 
overtook  her.  It  appears  from  an  Imperial  decree 
that  she  sent  a  message  to  the  new  Emperor  to  the 
following  effect  :— 

"  At  this  moment  I  am  desperately  ill,  and  I  feel 
that  I  cannot  recover.  Hereafter  all  public  affairs  of 
the  Empire  are  entrusted  to  the  Prince  Regent. 
Should  serious  questions  arise  the  Regent  must 
personally  request  the  advice  of  the  new  Empress 
Dowager." 

After  despatching  this  message  Tze-hi  sank  rapidly, 
and  at  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of  the  I5th  she 
was  dead,  leaving  behind  her  one  document,  her  last 
farewell  to  the  people  of  China,  which  we  shall  give 
in  full  :- 

"  I,  of  scanty  merit,  had  the  honour  to  receive 
appointment  among  the  consorts  of  His  Sainted 
Majesty,  My  husband  Hienfung.  The  succession  to 
the  throne  of  My  son  the  Emperor  Tungchih  occurred 
at  a  time  when  rebellions  were  still  raging.  The 
Taipings  and  Nienfei  and  the  Kweichow  aborigines 
were  in  turn  causing  disturbances  and  spreading  dis- 
order. The  coast  provinces  were  in  sore  distress  and 
the  people  in  serious  difficulties,  misery  everywhere 
meeting  the  eye.  Co-operating  with  the  Empress 
Dowager  [of  the  Eastern  Palace],  I  carried  on  the 
government,  ever  toiling  night  and  day.  Acting  in 


300   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

harmony  with  the  policy  enjoined  by  My  sainted 
husband,  I  stimulated  the  metropolitan  and  provincial 
authorities  and  the  military  commanders,  directing 
their  operations  and  striving  earnestly  to  secure  peace. 
I  employed  the  virtuous  in  office  and  hearkened  to 
admonition.  I  relieved  the  people's  distress  in  flood 
and  famine.  By  the  grace  of  Heaven  I  suppressed 
the  rebellions  and  out  of  danger  I  brought  back 
peace. 

"  When  the  Emperor  Tungchih  departed  this  life 
and  the  late  Emperor  Kwanghsu  succeeded  to  the 
throne,  the  times  were  still  more  grave  and  the  people 
were  in  still  greater  straits.  Within  the  Empire  was 
calamity,  from  without  came  peril  again  and  again ;  and 
once  more  it  behoved  Me  to  reform  the  government. 
The  year  before  last  I  issued  a  decree  preparing  for 
the  grant  of  a  Constitution,  and  this  year  I  have 
proclaimed  the  date  when  it  will  be  granted. 

"  Happily  my  strength  was  always  robust,  and  I 
maintained  my  vigour.  Unexpectedly,  since  the 
Summer  of  this  year  I  have  been  often  indisposed. 
Amid  pressing  affairs  of  State  I  could  get  no  repose. 
I  lost  my  sleep  and  my  appetite,  until  my  strength 
began  to  fail.  Yet  I  never  rested  a  single  day. 

"On  the  2 ist  day  of  this  moon  occurred  the  death 
of  the  Emperor.  My  grief  overwhelmed  me.  I 
could  bear  up  no  longer.  My  sickness  is  dangerous. 
All  hope  of  recovery  has  vanished. 

"  At  the  present  time  a  gradual  reform  in  the 
method  of  government  has  begun.  His  Majesty  the 


THE   END    OF   ALL  301 

new  Emperor  is  of  tender  years  and  needs  instruc- 
tion. The  Prince  Regent  and  the  Ministers  must 
aid  Him  to  strengthen  the  foundations  of  the  Em- 
pire. 

"  His  Majesty  must  forget  his  personal  grief  and 
strive  diligently  that  hereafter  He  may  add  fresh 
lustre  to  the  achievements  of  his  ancestors.  This  is 
My  earnest  hope.  Let  the  period  of  mourning  be 
twenty-seven  days  only.  Let  this  be  proclaimed  to 
the  Empire,  so  that  all  may  know  !  " 

Tze-hi's  instructions  as  to  the  brief  period  of 
mourning  were  not  carried  out.  She  can  hardly  have 
expected  that  they  would  be.  On  the  day  of  her 
death  little  Puyi  was  made  to  publish  an  edict  which 
is  also  worth  quotation  : — 

"  We  received  in  Our  early  childhood  the  love  and 
care  of  Tze-hi,  etc,  [her  full  title  follows,  as  given 
above],  the  Great  Empress  Dowager.  Our  gratitude 
is  boundless.  We  were  commanded  to  succeed  to 
the  throne  and  We  fully  expected  that  the  gentle 
Empress  Dowager  would  be  vigorous  and  reach  the 
age  of  one  hundred  years,  so  that  We  might  be 
cherished  and  made  glad  and  might  reverently 
receive  Her  instructions  to  the  end  that  Our  Govern- 
ment might  be  established  and  the  State  made  strong. 
But  Her  toil  night  and  day  gradually  weakened  Her. 
Medicine  was  constantly  administered  to  Her,  in  the 
hope  that  She  might  recover.  Contrary  to  Our 
hopes  She  took  the  Dragon  ride  and  ascended  to  the 
Far  Country.  We  cried  and  mourned  frantically. 


302   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

We  learn  from  Her  last  testament  that  the  period  of 
full  mourning  is  to  be  limited  to  twenty-seven  days. 
We  cannot  be  satisfied  with  this.  Full  mourning 
must  be  worn  for  one  hundred  days  and  half- 
mourning  for  twenty-seven  months,  in  order  that 
Our  sorrow  may  find  partial  expression.  The 
order  to  restrain  Our  own  grief,  so  that  the  affairs  of 
the  Empire  may  take  first  place,  We  dare  not  dis- 
regard, since  it  is  Her  parting  command.  We  will 
strive  to  be  moderate  in  grief,  so  as  to  comfort  the 
spirit  of  the  late  Empress  in  Heaven." 

We  have  related  the  story  of  the  deaths  of  the 
Emperor  Kwanghsu  and  the  Empress  Dowager,  as 
far  as  it  is  possible  to  deduce  it  from  the  edicts  issued 
by  themselves  and  in  the  name  of  the  child  whom 
they  left  upon  the  throne.  But  it  must  be  noted  that 
in  spite  of  the  very  explicit  wording  of  the  edicts, 
and  especially  of  Tze-hi's  valedictory  proclamation,  in 
which  she  speaks  of  her  overwhelming  grief  at  her 
nephew's  death,  some  believed,  possibly  through  a 
misunderstanding  of  the  hours  of  the  deaths  as 
officially  stated,  that  she  was  the  first  to  succumb. 
Nor  were  there  wanting  rumours  of  foul  play  in  both 
cases.  With  regard  to  Kwanghsu  the  tale  was 
circumstantial.  It  was  said  that  a  Chinese  doctor 
who  attended  the  Emperor  in  his  last  illness  received 
a  present  of  $33,000  from  Viceroy  Yuan  Shi-kai. 
Professor  Headland l  seems  inclined  to  believe  this, 
and  that  Kwanghsu  died  from  the  effects  of  poison 
1  Court  Life  in  China,  p.  323 


THE   END    OF   ALL  303 

after  the  decease  of  the  Empress  Dowager,  the  edicts 
being  edited  in  order  to  avert  suspicion  as  to  the 
facts  of  the  case.  But  to  make  the  story  probable  it 
is  necessary  to  imagine  a  huge  palace  conspiracy,  in 
which  not  only  Yuan  Shi-kai  was  implicated,  but  also 
Prince  Chun  himself  and  a  crowd  of  lesser  people, 
who  must  have  had  very  good  reason  for  remaining 
silent.  But  Prince  Chun,  always  reputed  devoted  to 
his  brother,  took  a  very  early  opportunity  to  invalid 
Yuan  Shi-kai  from  all  his  posts  on  the  plea  of 
"  rheumatism  of  the  leg,"  and  has  kept  him  out  of 
office  ever  since.  The  Viceroy  accepted  his  disgrace 
calmly  and  left  at  once  for  his  native  province  of 
Honan.  What  the  future  has  in  store  for  him,  who 
will  venture  to  prophesy  ? 1 

Yuan  was  punished  for  his  treachery  in  1898. 
There  is  no  need  to  smirch  the  name  of  the  great 

1  A  remarkable  telegram  was  sent  by  Reuter's  Peking  correspon- 
dent on  September  5th  of  the  present  year.  Herein  it  was  stated 
that  daily  conferences  were  proceeding  between  three  of  the  Viceroys 
and  the  members  of  the  Government,  at  which  the  chief  subject  of 
discussion  was  the  proposed  recall  of  Yuan  Shi-kai.  The  telegram 
continued  :  "  Palace  intrigues  are  apparently  exercising  a  powerful 
influence  and  Yuan  Shi-kai's  prospects  are  declining  owing  to  the 
obstruction  of  the  Empress  Dowager's  party,  which,  realising  the 
opportunity  offered  by  the  present  state  of  affairs,  is  striving  for  mastery. 
The  scheme  now  in  the  forefront  provides,  it  would  appear,  for  the 
Empress  Dowager  supplanting  the  Regent  as  nominal  head  while  a 
'  Council  of  Three,'  consisting  of  two  Princes  and  a  Manchu  ex- 
Minister,  would  direct  affairs."  According  to  the  correspondent,  the 
scheme  was  regarded  at  Peking  as  "  a  futile  and  probably  final  effort 
to  restore  a  reactionary  government  under  female  control."  It  would 
indeed  be  an  extraordinary  thing  were  Yunglu's  daughter  to  be  allowed 
to  follow  in  the  footsteps  of  Yunglu's  aunt. 


304   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

Chinese  official  with  the  accusation  of  murdering  his 
Emperor  ten  years  after  he  had  betrayed  him.  Yuan, 
as  has  already  been  suggested,  was  not  always  scrupu- 
lous as  to  the  means  by  which  he  attained  an  end 
which  seemed  to  him  good,  but  he  was  never  base, 
even  in  the  sense  in  which  the  epithet  has  been 
applied  to  some  actions  of  his  patron  Li  Hung-chang. 
We  may  be  content  to  attribute  the  deaths  of  both 
Kwanghsu  and  Tze-hi  to  natural  causes,  allowing  it  to 
be  a  curious  and  melancholy  coincidence  which  sepa- 
rated by  less  than  twenty-four  hours  the  departure 
from  life  of  two  people  who  while  they  lived  had  been 
so  closely  connected  and  so  much  at  variance. 

A  more  suspicious  occurrence  was  the  death  of 
Prince  Ching  only  a  few  days  after  his  two  Imperial 
relatives.  As  soon  as  the  announcement  of  the  new 
heir  and  regent  was  made  it  was  whispered  that  there 
might  be  trouble  through  the  opposition  of  the  old 
Prince,  who,  though  his  connection  with  the  reigning 
family  went  back  three  generations,  was  very  influen- 
tial owing  to  the  high  favour  which  Tze-hi  had  be- 
stowed upon  him,  his  long  tenure  of  exalted  public 
offices,  and  his  pliability  of  disposition,  which  enabled 
him  to  collect  about  him  a  great  number  of  friends. 
It  has  even  been  suggested  that  he  had  come  to  an 
understanding  with  Yuan  Shi-kai,  whereby  the  latter 
was  to  support  the  candidature  to  the  throne  of 
Ching's  son  Tsaichen — an  improbable  tale,  seeing  that 
this  prince  was  in  the  wrong  category  for  reigning  as 
well  as  rather  remote  from  the  direct  dynastic  line. 


THE   END    OF   ALL  305 

However,  it  was  a  well-known  fact  that  Prince  Ching 
had  not  been  liked  by  Kwanghsu,  and  no  one  had  any 
doubts  that  Prince  Chun  shared  his  brother's  feelings 
about  his  kinsman.  Therefore,  if  Ching  had  pro- 
tested against  a  second  case  of  a  father's  regency 
during  his  son's  minority,  it  would  have  occasioned 
no  surprise.  But  his  sudden  death  put  an  end  to  all 
chance  of  a  protest.  It  was  given  out  that  he  had 
succumbed  to  overwhelming  grief  at  the  decease  of 
the  Emperor  and  Empress  Dowager ;  and  unofficially 
an  additional  cause  was  mentioned,  mortification  at 
being  refused  permission  to  take  part  in  the  ceremony 
of  inauguration  of  the  new  Emperor's  reign,  which 
was  fixed  for  December  2nd.  As  he  was  over 
seventy-two  years  of  age,  it  is  conceivable  that  his 
end  was  actually  brought  about  by  shock.  In  the 
midst  of  the  general  upset  in  the  Palace,  Prince 
Ching's  death  did  not  attract  so  much  attention  as 
it  would  otherwise  have  done.  But  the  foreign 
residents  in  China  expressed,  and  no  doubt  felt,  much 
sorrow.  The  old  Prince  had  been  popular  with  them 
for  many  years,  especially  since  his  share  in  the 
negotiations  of  1901  had  brought  him  in  regular 
contact  with  Western  diplomatists. 

The  Emperor  Kwanghsu's  body,  after  lying  in 
state  in  the  Hall  of  Imperial  Longevity  in  the  For- 
bidden City  during  the  hundred  days  of  full  mourn- 
ing, was  moved  in  the  following  spring  to  a  temporary 
resting-place  in  the  Imperial  Cemetery  on  the  Eastern 
Hills,  eighty  miles  from  Peking.  Kwanghsu  had 


306   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

always  declined  to  choose  a  site  for  his  own  tomb, 
and  it  was  therefore  necessary  to  erect  his  mausoleum 
after  his  death.  Tze-hi,  on  the  other  hand,  had  for 
many  years  taken  a  great  interest  in  her  place  of 
burial.  This  "  Myriad  Ages  "  mausoleum  ("  Myriad 
Ages  "  or  "  Ten  Thousand  Years,"  as  we  may  trans- 
late it,  was  one  of  the  many  complimentary  names  by 
which  the  Dowager  was  known  at  Peking)  had  origi- 
nally been  erected  for  his  aunt  by  Yunglu  on  the 
Eastern  Hills,  close  to  Hienfung's  tomb,  at  a  cost 
well  over  ^1,000,000,  and  she  had  repeatedly  visited 
it  to  see  that  it  was  kept  in  good  condition  and  to 
direct  additions  to  its  decorations.  It  was  nearly  a 
year  after  her  death  when  her  body  was  taken  thither 
from  the  Forbidden  City,  the  Astronomical  Board,  on 
whom  she  had  relied  so  much  during  her  lifetime, 
selecting  5  a.m.  on  November  9th,  1909,  as  the  fortu- 
nate hour  on  which  the  funeral  procession  should 
start  out  on  its  four  days'  journey  to  the  Eastern 
Hills. 

Previous  to  the  actual  funeral,  however,  a  cere- 
mony took  place  in  the  Imperial  City  which  was 
watched  with  interest  by  many  foreigners.  The 
Empress's  remains  were  still  lying  in  the  Hall  of 
Imperial  Longevity  when  on  August  3Oth — again  a 
day  chosen  by  the  astronomers  as  lucky — a  huge 
imitation  boat,  one  hundred  and  eighty  feet  long,  was 
burnt  on  a  piece  of  open  ground  close  to  the  wall  of 
the  Forbidden  City  and  opposite  the  hall  where  Tze- 
hi's  coffin  lay.  This  boat  was  completely  fitted  up  with 


THE   END    OF   ALL  307 

furniture,  manned  by  life-sized  figures  standing  at 
the  oars,  men  and  women  servants,  etc.,  all  clad  in 
silken  robes,  and  surrounded  by  imitation  water  over- 
grown with  lotus,  and  cost  over  ^7000,  the  object 
being  to  provide  the  Empress  Dowager  in  the  next 
world  with  the  means  of  gratifying  that  passion  for 
boating  which  she  had  indulged  so  freely  in  this  life 
on  the  beautiful  waters  of  the  Summer  Palace  and 
Lotus  Lakes.  Subsequently  a  whole  army  of  three 
thousand  life-sized  paper  effigies,  representing  cavalry 
and  infantrymen,  musicians,  officials,  horses  and  car- 
riages, footmen,  chair-bearers,  etc.,  was  similarly 
burnt  to  provide  her  with  a  retinue  on  land  as  well 
as  by  water. 

On  the  morning  of  November  9th,  at  five  o'clock 
precisely,  the  Empress's  coffin,  covered  with  a  pall  of 
dragon-embroidered  yellow  silk,  left  the  Palace  under 
a  huge  catafalque  carried  by  eighty-four  bearers,  and 
moved  solemnly  toward  the  North-eastern  gate  of 
the  Tartar  City.  The  streets  had  all  been  strewn 
with  yellow  sand,  and  were  lined  with  soldiers  and 
police,  who  kept  perfect  order.  The  procession  was 
led  by  Prince  Chun,  the  Imperial  Princes,  and  all  the 
members  of  the  Grand  Council  and  Grand  Secre- 
tariat. For  a  short  distance  the  foreign  diplomatic 
corps,  in  order  of  seniority,  walked  in  front  of  the 
coffin  in  token  of  respect  for  the  departed.  After  the 
catafalque  came  modern-drilled  cavalry,  and  then,  in 
curious  contrast,  Mongol  attendants  with  camels, 
carrying  the  materials  for  the  erection  of  the  matshed 


308    GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

resting-places  of  the  coffin  on  the  four  nights  of  its 
journey.  Next  came  a  string  of  men  bearing  the 
various  "  umbrellas  of  honour "  presented  to  Her 
Majesty  on  her  return  to  Peking  in  1900.  Then 
followed  high  Lamaist  dignitaries  burning  incense,  a 
contingent  from  the  Imperial  Equipage  Department 
bearing  Manchu  sacrificial  vessels,  Buddhist  symbols, 
and  embroidered  banners,  three  chariots  with  trap- 
pings and  curtains  of  Imperial  yellow  silk  emblazoned 
with  dragons  and  phoenixes,  and  two  palanquins 
similar  to  those  used  by  the  Empress  Dowager  on 
her  journeys  in  state.1 

Outside  the  walls  of  the  city  the  coffin  was  trans- 
ferred to  a  bier  carried  by  one  hundred  and  twenty 
bearers.  The  Prince  Regent  had  parted  with  the 
foreign  diplomatists  at  the  gate,  leaving  them  to  take 
their  places  in  a  pavilion  specially  erected  for  them. 
He  himself  led  the  procession  for  a  short  distance 
beyond  the  walls,  and  then  returned  to  the  Palace, 
while  the  coffin  pursued  its  way  eastward. 

It  is  said  that  the  actual  procession  was  neither  so 
long  nor  so  imposing  as  that  on  the  occasion  of 
Kwanghsu's  funeral.  On  the  other  hand,  whereas 
the  Emperor's  funeral  cost  less  than  half  a  million 
Taels,  that  of  the  Empress  cost  between  a  million  and 
a  million  and  a  half.  The  Times  correspondent  re- 
marks :  "  As  the  cost  of  a  funeral  in  China  closely 
reflects  the  dignity  of  the  deceased  and  the  f  face '  of 

1  This  account  is  mainly  taken  from  the  Times  correspondent's 
description  of  the  scene. 


THE   END   OF   ALL  309 

his  or  her  immediate  relations,  these  figures  become 
particularly  interesting  when  compared."  But  can  it 
be  said  that  China  did  wrong  in  estimating  the 
Empress  Dowager  Tze-hi  as  a  considerably  more 
important  personage  than  her  nephew  the  Emperor 
Kwanghsu  ? 


CHAPTER   XXI 
THE   EMPRESS   DOWAGER   OF   CHINA 

TT  may  be  doubted  whether  any  of  the  commanding 
figures  of  history,  ancient  or  modern,  has  ever  had 
so  heavy  a  load  of  prejudice  to  bear,  while  also  receiving 
(not  only  during  life,  but  after  death)  so  much  eulogy, 
as  Tze-hi,  Empress  Dowager  of  China.  The  out- 
standing men  and  women  of  all  times  naturally  have 
aroused  a  wide  diversity  of  opinion  among  their  critics, 
caused  by  moral,  political,  or  national  bias  for  or 
against  them.  But  who  except  Tze-hi  has  had  the 
fortune  to  be  compared  with  Jezebel,  Messalina, 
Theodora,  the  "  arch-fiends  "  of  her  own  country's 
annals,1  Catherine  de  Medicis,  and,  less  severely, 
Catherine  II  of  Russia,  and  at  the  same  time  has  been 
called  the  greatest  woman  of  her  century,  "  a  strong 
character  such  as  history  has  seldom  recorded,"2  and 
one  whom  "  history  will  rank  among  the  greatest 
rulers  of  mankind  "  8  ?  Were  the  general  records  of 

1  The  Empresses  Lii  and  Wu,  with  whom  Mrs.  Archibald  Little, 
calling    them    thus    in    her  Life  of   Li   Hung-fAang,    compares    the 
late  Empress  Dowager.     Professor  Douglas,  it  may  be  noted,  speaks 
of  the  Empress  Wu  by  her  "  wisdom  and  energy  "  securing  a  brief 
space  of  peace  with  honour  for  China. 

2  Mrs.  Conger,  Letters  from  China  (Foreword). 

8  Colonel  Denby,  former  United  States  Minister  at  Peking. 

310 


EMPRESS    DOWAGER   OF   CHINA     311 

China's  history  in  the  period  between  1875  an<^  I9°^ 
lost  and  nothing  left  beyond  the  writings  of  those  who 
have  dealt  with  the  personality  of  the  Empress  Dowa- 
ger, the  bewildered  reader  would  be  driven  to  believe 
that  there  were  two  women,  not  one,  concerned  in  the 
administration  of  the  Celestial  Empire — one  a  monster 
of  iniquity,  the  other  a  lovable  genius,  at  once  patriotic 
and  enlightened. 

In  cases  of  very  wide  disagreement  of  the  critics' 
views  about  any  person's  character,  it  immediately 
occurs  to  us,  attempting  to  arrive  at  the  truth,  to 
suspect  both  friends  and  enemies  of  much  exagger- 
ation, and  to  strike  a  balance  between  the  extreme 
statements  for  the  prosecution  and  the  defence.  Thus 
we  get  in  the  end  a  character  neither  black  nor 
white  ;  and,  piebald  characters  being  the  rule  in  his- 
tory, we  perhaps  rest  content.  But  this  need  not 
prevent  us  from  examining  the  black  and  the  white 
patches  with  a  view  to  discovering,  if  possible,  which 
predominate. 

Tze-hi's  bad  points,  in  the  mouths  of  her  enemies, 
make  up  a  formidable  catalogue.  Cruelty,  vindictive 
temper,  unscrupulous  selfishness  never  hesitating 
at  murder,  overweening  ambition,  scandalous  morals, 
financial  dishonesty,  reckless  extravagance,  gross  super- 
stition, unblushing  hypocrisy,  are  all  laid  to  her 
charge.  If  every  accusation  could  be  proved,  there 
would  scarcely  be  further  need  to  enquire  whether 
she  was  to  be  reckoned  as  a  woman  great  in  any 
ordinary  sense  of  the  word. 


312   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

She  can  hardly  be  cleared  of  the  imputation  of 
cruelty  and  vindictiveness.  Her  treatment  of  her 
nephew  Kwanghsu  cannot  be  justified  by  her  warmest 
admirers,  even  if  it  be  denied  that  she  ever  had  an 
intention  of  putting  him  to  death..  Her  behaviour 
towards  him  from  1898  onward  was  scarcely  less 
unkind  than  the  actual  infliction  of  the  death-penalty 
would  have  been,  and  nothing  can  ever  obliterate  in 
her  story  the  memory  of  the  long  years  of  mental 
torture  to  which  she  condemned  her  sister's  son. 
Although  Kwanghsu  may  not  have  been  all  that  his 
Chinese  and  foreign  friends  made  him  out  to  be,  at 
least  he  was  a  generous  young  prince,  deserving  of  a 
better  fate  than  twenty  years'  imprisonment,  during 
fourteen  of  which  he  was  compelled  to  see  his  name 
used  to  sanction  measures  which  he  detested,  and  the 
men  whom  he  admired  and  befriended  hunted  down 
as  criminals,  and  when  caught  doomed  to  shameful 
ends.  The  humiliation  of  his  subservient  position  at 
Court,  when  he  was  no  longer  an  absolute  prisoner  on  an 
island,  may  be  passed  over  as  not  a  matter  entirely  of 
Tze-hi's  choice.  Apart  from  that,  there  is  enough  to 
prove  against  her  the  charge  of  long-enduring  harsh- 
ness toward  him,  tempered  only  by  an  occasional 
capricious  flash  of  kindness  which  was  succeeded  by 
greater  rigour. 

Against  the  whole  Reform  Party  of  1898  she  un- 
doubtedly showed  a  most  vindictive  spirit.  Her 
partisans  said  that  she  had  an  impulsive  temper,  though 
denying  that  she  let  it  get  beyond  her  control  in  an 


EMPRESS    DOWAGER   OF   CHINA     313 

unseemly  way.1  On  occasions  she  certainly  yielded 
to  the  promptings  of  anger  and  behaved  with  distinct 
injustice.  For  instance,  in  1907  she  summarily  dis- 
missed one  of  the  Grand  Councillors  after  reading  a 
denunciation  of  him  by  two  of  his  enemies,  without 
giving  him  the  chance  of  saying  a  word  in  his  defence. 
Her  temper  in  the  case  of  the  Reformers  of  1898, 
however,  was  not  impulsive.  She  nourished  it  for 
six  years — indeed,  until  her  death  as  far  as  Kang  Yu-wei 
was  concerned.  In  extenuation  it  may  be  pleaded 
that  she  thought  Kang  Yu-wei  had  meant  to  kill  her, 
and  that  therefore  against  him  and  his  party  she  was 
acting  in  self-defence. 

The  time  of  the  reactionary  revolution  of  1898 
saw  the  Empress  Dowager  at  her  worst.  Her  hand 
fell  violently  not  only  on  the  Reformers  and  their 
supporters  in  the  native  Press,  but  also  on  the  in- 
mates of  the  Palace,  of  whom  a  very  great  number 
were  put  to  death,  according  to  the  common  talk 
of  Peking.  But  the  mortality  among  the  Palace 
eunuchs  must  have  been  heavy  at  more  than  one 
period  in  her  reign.  As  the  rights  and  wrongs  of 
the  case  cannot  be  known,  it  is  impossible  to  say 
more  than  that  the  eunuchs  found  her  a  terrible 
mistress  to  offend. 

A  charge  of  absolute   murder  to  further  her  in- 

1  She  did  not  become  "  unladylike,"  says  Miss  Carl,  and  did  not 
raise  her  tones  in  anger,  but  her  voice  "  lost  its  silvery  sweetness." 
Native  observers  said  that  what  was  most  to  be  dreaded  in  her  was  a 
grim  silence,  which  always  portended  evil  to  come. 


GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

terests  is  brought  against  Tze-hi  in  four  notable  cases. 
She  is  accused  of  killing  her  husband  Hienfung, 
her  son  Tungchih,  her  daughter-in-law  Ahluta,  and 
her  fellow  regent  Tze-an.  Some  add  to  the  list  her 
sister,  mother  of  the  Emperor  Kwanghsu,  who,  it 
is  said,  called  upon  her  at  the  Palace  one  day  in 
1896  to  remonstrate  with  her  on  the  way  in  which 
the  Emperor  was  kept  in  attendance  upon  her  instead 
of  devoting  himself  to  government  business,  and 
next  day  was  dead  !  This  has  all  the  marks  of  a 
Peking  native  rumour.  And,  as  we  have  seen  in 
earlier  chapters,  the  four  other  charges  have  no  real 
evidence  to  support  them;  though  the  death  of 
Ahluta  is  suspicious,  owing  to  the  undoubted  benefit 
to  the  two  Dowager  Empresses  through  her  removal 
if  she  was  with  child  by  Tungchih.  But  not  even 
in  this  affair  is  there  sufficient  testimony  to  fix  upon 
Tze-hi  the  guilt  of  cold-blooded  murder  for  the  sake 
of  her  ambitions.  The  imputation  will  continue  to 
be  made,  no  doubt,  because  it  is  impossible  to  rebut. 
Of  all  her  vices,  excessive  ambition  certainly  was 
most  prominent  in  Tze-hi's  character.  That,  having 
such  capacity  for  rule  as  she  possessed,  she  should 
love  to  exercise  it  was  natural.  But,  if  she  stopped 
short  of  murder  of  relations  to  retain  her  power,  she 
stopped  short  of  little  else.  It  is  true  that  the  weak- 
ness or  indecision  of  the  two  young  Emperors, 
Tungchih  and  Kwanghsu,  furnished  her  with  an 
excuse  for  thinking  she  could  guide  the  Empire 
better  than  they.  Kwanghsu,  however,  never  had 


EMPRESS    DOWAGER   OF   CHINA     315 

a  fair  chance  of  developing  his  gifts,  seeing  that  even 
in  her  retirement  she  took  care  to  retain  the  im- 
portant official  appointments  in  her  hands,  and 
prevented  him  from  having  about  him,  except  in 
subordinate  posts,  men  of  views  sympathetic  with 
his  own. 

In  the  sphere  of  personal  morals  the  Empress  was 
painted  by  her  foes  in  the  blackest  of  all  possible 
hues.  The  scandal-loving  Pekingese  credited  her 
with  indulgence  in  all  forms  of  debauchery.  Many 
Westerners  have  believed  them  implicitly,  it  would 
seem.  To  take  but  one  example,  the  Rev.  A.  H. 
Smith,  writing  of  her  conduct  in  1 899-1900,*  says  : 
"  Little  by  little  she  became  fascinated  with  the 
thought  of  adding  the  supernatural  to  the  infra- 
natural  (and  the  unnatural)  until  she  was  herself  the 
Head  Patroness  of  the  Boxers."  This  is  surely  a 
light-hearted  acceptance  of  the  worst  that  could  be 
said  against  her.  Another  Western  writer,  however, 
who  knew  Peking  intimately,  says  :  "  There  is  no 
need  to  attach  importance  to  Chinese  tales  of  personal 
libertinism.  They  may  be  wholly  false,  and  are 
indeed  almost  disproved  by  her  long  years  of  health 
and  vitality  and  her  absorption  in  higher  ambitions 
than  those  of  mere  personal  enjoyment." 8 

1  China  in  Convulsion,  p.  149. 

2  Times  obituary  notice  on  the  Empress  Dowager.     It  is  open,  of 
course,  with  regard  to  the   "  long  years  of  health   and  vitality,"  to 
quote  the  example  of  Catherine  of  Russia,  as  Professor    Parker  in 
effect  does  when  he  calls  her  "  Chinese  Catherine  No.  Ill,"  her  prede- 
cessors being  the  above-mentioned  Empresses  Lii  and  Wu. 


316   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

Had  Tze-hi  been  more  careful  of  the  power  which 
she  allowed  to  the  head  eunuch  of  the  Palace,  Li 
Lien-ying,  we  should  doubtless  have  heard  less  of 
the  fierce  charges  which  were  brought  against  her 
morals.  But  that  infamous  person,  whether  he  was 
or  was  not  what  he  was  claimed  to  be  (and  Miss 
Carl's  description  of  him1  rather  tends  to  support 
the  gossip  of  Peking  about  him),  made  himself  so 
obnoxious  to  the  Empress's  subjects  that  they  seized 
eagerly  upon  the  chance  of  revenging  themselves  on 
her  with  scurrility  coupling  his  name  with  hers. 
Seeing  that  near  the  end  of  her  life,  when  she  had 
once  overcome  her  reluctance  to  face  the  camera  at 
all,  she  allowed  herself  to  be  photographed  frequently 
in  his  company,  both  in  everyday  attire  and  in  a 
tableau  representing  Kwan-yin,  Goddess  of  Mercy, 
attended  by  Buddhist  monks — she  being  the  goddess 
and  Li  Lien-ying  and  another  senior  eunuch  the 
monks — she  was  certainly  negligent  of  her  reputation. 

By  a  confusion  due  to  the  identity  of  surnames 
between  "  Cobbler' s-wax  Li "  and  Li  Hung-chang, 
some  Western  writers  have  attributed  to  the  Empress 
a  lover  in  the  ancient  statesman — a  story  which  would 
be  more  interesting  if  it  had  any  foundation.  The 
same  remark  may  be  made  on  a  statement  in  a  recent 
French  work2  which  assigns  to  her  as  "one  of  her 
old  lovers"  Prince  Chun  the  elder,  brother  of 
Hienfung. 

1  Seep.  145. 

2  La  Chine  Nouvelle,  by  MM.  Rodes  and  Defrance. 


THE   LAST  PHOTOGRAPH  OF  THE   EMPRESS  DOWAGER 
In  the  rule  of  the  Goddess  of  Mercy,  accompanied  by  her  two  chief  eunuch* 


EMPRESS   DOWAGER   OF   CHINA     317 

But  it  is  useless  to  pursue  the  subject  further. 
Tze-hi's  moral  character  must  remain  a  matter  of 
opinion,  since  it  is  not  a  matter  of  direct  evidence. 
No  ordinarily  constituted  woman  could  have  lived 
so  strenuous  a  political  life  as  the  Chinese  Empress 
Dowager  and  yet  have  found  time  for  many  love- 
affairs.  But  it  is  open  to  her  accusers  to  argue  that 
she  was  a  woman  of  no  ordinary  constitution. 

In  her  choice  of  favourites,  apart  from  such  people 
as  Li  Lien-ying,  the  Empress  was  often  unwise. 
Even  her  friends  admitted  that  if  anyone  could  gain 
her  confidence  once  he  could  easily  victimize  her  in 
future.  So  it  seems  to  have  been  the  case  when  the 
advocates  of  the  Boxer  fraternity  got  a  hearing  from 
her. 

But  superstition  had  much  to  do  with  her  sur- 
render to  the  Boxers.  She  witnessed  their  miracles 
and  was  converted.  For  a  strong-minded  woman 
she  was,  indeed,  intensely  superstitious.  The  Board 
of  "  Astronomers "  was  consulted  by  her  at  every 
turn.  Her  nervous  dread  at  the  thought  of  missing 
the  lucky  hour  for  her  return  to  Peking  was  pitiable. 
Her  belief  in  the  efficacy  of  charms  was  profound. 

The  financial  dishonesty  which  was  brought  up 
against  her  consisted  in  the  malversation  of  public 
funds  to  gratify  her  insatiable  desire  for  money  and  in 
her  employment  of  corrupt  officials,  apparently  because 
they  shared  their  gains  with  her.  She  was  capable  of 
making  enormous  gifts  for  patriotic  purposes,  as  we 
have  seen,  and  of  directing  a  campaign  against  cor- 


3i8    GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

ruption  in  the  provinces.  Nor  was  she  devoid  of 
generous  impulses,  even  where  her  patriotism  was  not 
touched.  In  1906,  after  the  San  Francisco  earthquake, 
she  offered  from  her  privy  purse  a  sum  of  ^15,000 
to  the  sufferers  ;  and  when  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment declined  outside  assistance,  she  gave  ^6000  for 
the  relief  of  the  Chinese  left  destitute  by  the  earth- 
quake. 

But  at  the  same  time  she  was  a  very  luxurious 
woman,  and,  in  spite  of  her  huge  income,  was  con- 
stantly requiring  more  money  to  spend  on  her  many 
and  various  tastes.  In  her  mania  for  building  we 
have  compared  her  with  the  French  Empress  Josephine. 
She  was  as  fond  as  Josephine  also  of  jewellery.  Her 
chief  passion  in  this  respect  was  for  pearls  and  jade. 
It  was  not  until  quite  late  in  life  that  she  showed  any 
particular  liking  for  diamonds,  and  began  to  wear  a 
number  of  them  set  in  rings.  Miss  Carl  does  not 
consider  her  wardrobe  extravagant ;  but  she  describes 
a  very  elaborate  costume  which  Tze-hi  wore  on  one 
occasion  while  she  was  a  visitor  to  the  Summer  Palace 
— a  long  Manchu  gown  of  imperial  yellow  transparent 
silk,  embroidered  with  natural-hued  wistaria,  over  an 
under-gown  of  yellow.  Jade  buttons  fastened  it,  from 
the  right  shoulder  to  the  floor.  From  the  top  button 
there  hung  a  string  of  eighteen  enormous  pearls 
separated  by  flat  pieces  of  transparent  green  jade. 
From  the  same  button  was  suspended  a  large,  carved 
pale  ruby,  with  yellow  silk  tassels  terminating  in  two 
immense  pear-shaped  pearls.  Around  her  throat  was 


EMPRESS    DOWAGER   OF   CHINA     319 

a  pale  blue,  two-inch  wide  cravat,  embroidered  in  gold 
with  large  pearls.  As  for  her  hair,  the  usual  Manchu 
coil  was  encircled  by  a  band  of  pearls,  with  an  immense 
"flaming  pearl"  in  the  centre.  On  each  side  were 
bunches  of  natural  flowers  and  a  profusion  of  jewels, 
while  from  the  right  of  the  head-dress  a  tassel  of  eight 
strings  of  pearls  reached  to  the  shoulder. 

This  costume,  supplemented  by  rings,  bracelets, 
and  nail-protectors  of  jade  on  one  hand  and  of  gold  set 
with  rubies  and  pearls  on  the  other,  gives  an  impres- 
sion of  its  wearer  being  extravagant  rather  than 
moderate  in  her  wardrobe,  it  must  be  admitted  ;  for 
it  was  not  a  robe  of  state. 

It  was  in  her  conduct  toward  themselves  that 
Europeans  saw  the  proof  of  the  deep  hypocrisy  of  the 
Empress  Dowager — to  leave  on  one  side  for  the 
present  the  question  of  the  sincerity  of  her  claim  to 
be  a  reformer.  It  would  have  required  an  almost 
superhuman  amount  of  charity  in  them  to  forgive  her 
for  her  share  in  the  Boxer  campaign.  It  was  not  so 
much  her  alliance  with  the  Boxers,  however,  as  her 
friendliness  to  the  Western  ladies  whom  she  received 
in  the  Palace  before  and  after,  which  aroused  the 
bitterest  comment.  It  appears  to  have  been  incon- 
ceivable to  the  majority  of  her  critics  that  she  should 
have  been  genuine  in  her  expressions  of  goodwill  to  her 
visitors  at  the  end  of  1898  and  from  1902  onwards, 
and  should  yet  have  lent  herself  to  the  schemes  of 
those  who  were  prepared  in  1900  to  wipe  out  of 
existence  every  foreigner  in  China.  These  critics 


320   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

made  no  allowance  for  the  great  provocation  which 
China  had  received  from  foreign  nations  and  the 
strong  patriotism  of  the  Empress  Dowager.  Tze-hi 
had  a  grievance,  many  grievances,  against  the  peoples 
of  the  West.  She  had  not  any  against  Western 
womankind.  Let  us  grant,  however,  that  in  her 
effusive  politeness  to  the  latter  there  was  more  tact 
than  real  friendliness,  and  that  tact  is  a  higher  kind  of 
hypocrisy. 

Tze-hi  cannot  therefore  be  acquitted  of  a  consider- 
able amount  of  cruelty,  of  excessive  ambition,  of 
proneness  to  absurd  superstition,  of  extravagance 
careless  of  the  source  whence  it  satisfied  its  needs, 
and  of  a  pliancy  of  behaviour  perilously  close  to  in- 
sincerity. On  the  other  hand,  few  of  her  enemies 
could  deny  her  political  ability,  her  application  to  the 
service  of  her  country,  and  her  faithfulness  to  her 
friends.  They  were  bound  to  confess  that  she  had 
a  discerning  eye  for  men  of  talent  and  knew  how  to 
work  in  harmony  with  them,  without  allowing  them 
to  grow  too  strong  in  the  positions  which  she  helped 
them  to  attain,  making  excellent  use  of  the  plan  of 
setting  one  man  to  be  a  check  against  the  undue 
supremacy  of  another.  They  confessed,  too,  that  no 
amount  of  public  approval  could  induce  her  to 
abandon  to  disgrace  her  assistants  in  the  administra- 
tion of  the  country.  It  was  not  necessary  to  go 
further  than  the  history  of  Li  Hung-chang's  career 
to  see  that  this  was  so.  The  imputation  of  willing- 
ness to  sacrifice  her  friends  was  never  brought  against 


EMPRESS   DOWAGER   OF   CHINA     321 

her.  The  fate  of  Prince  Chuang,  Yu-hien,  and  others 
in  1901  cannot  be  quoted  as  evidence  to  the  contrary, 
as  the  punishment  of  the  Boxer  chiefs  was  wrung 
from  her  by  brute  force. 

A  Roman  hero  was  once  publicly  thanked  for 
"  not  despairing  of  the  Republic."  Similarly  Tze-hi 
must  be  admired  for  never  despairing  of  her  Empire. 
Some  have  grudged  to  call  her  a  patriot,  arguing  that 
it  was  not  China,  but  her  own  position  in  China 
which  she  fought  so  hard  to  preserve.  But  to  her 
the  two  causes  were  one.  Her  experiments  in  allow- 
ing the  chief  power  to  pass  into  the  hands  of  others 
than  herself  only  inspired  her  with  a  greater  belief 
in  her  own  indispensability.  And  it  cannot  be  said 
that  government  to  her  meant  unmixed  pleasure. 
She  never  spared  herself.  It  was  no  exaggeration 
when  she  spoke  in  her  dying  proclamation  of  "  ever 
toiling  night  and  day."  A  reigning  Emperor  of 
China  has  a  life  of  arduous  routine,  commencing, 
daily  throughout  the  year,  in  the  very  early  hours  of 
the  morning  ;*  and  the  Empress  Dowager,  in  usurp- 
ing the  place  of  an  Emperor,  underwent  all  the  hard- 
ships also.  Miss  Carl,  the  only  Westerner  who 
lived  for  a  time  as  a  guest  under  her  roof,  testifies 
to  her  extremely  early  rising  at  the  Summer  Palace. 
At  Peking  it  was  always  in  the  dark  of  night  that  she 
left  her  bed  to  proceed  to  the  hall  where  she  listened 
to  the  reports  of  her  officials.  To  the  end  of  her 
life  she  gave  personal  attention  to  every  State  docu- 

1  See  Douglas,  History  of  China,  pp.  415,  420. 


Y 


322    GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

ment,  and  she  carried  with  her  everywhere  tablets  on 
which  she  jotted  down  notes,  even  during  the  course 
of  ordinary  conversation.  Winter  made  no  differ- 
ence in  her  habits,  except  that  it  was  darker  and 
colder  then  in  the  ill-lighted  and  inadequately  warmed 
Palace.  No  European  sovereign  has  ever  been  com- 
pelled to  live  such  laborious  days  as  the  Empress 
Dowager  of  China  during  her  long  period  of  rule. 

Unanimity  of  opinion  as  to  her  statesmanship  is 
not  to  be  expected.  But  even  the  most  unfriendly 
historians  are  obliged  to  allow  that  her  policy  met 
with  an  astonishing  amount  of  success,  in  spite  of 
her  temporary  mad  alliance  with  the  Boxers.  Its 
leading  note  was,  if  one  likes,  a  crafty  opportunism, 
aided  by  what  chess-players  call  "  a  quick  sight  of  the 
board "  ;  but  it  saved  China.  Kwanghsu's  more 
honest,  less  provident  policy  had  all  but  reduced  his 
Empire  to  the  condition  of  dismemberment  for  which 
the  Western  diplomatists  were  hoping.  At  Tze-hi's 
death  there  was  no  more  talk  of  the  "  break-up  of 
China."  The  Empress  was  lucky,  no  doubt,  in  find- 
ing the  greed  of  the  Powers  largely  counteracted  by 
their  mutual  jealousies.  But  it  required  great 
adroitness,  nevertheless,  to  take  advantage  of  these 
jealousies  ;  and  whom  can  we  credit  with  the  neces- 
sary skill  save  Tze-hi  herself?  No  one,  unless  it  be 
the  subordinates  whom  she  herself  selected  to  help 
her  in  her  task.  And  these  subordinates,  it  must  be 
remembered,  were  not  men  of  any  particular  school 
of  thought  or  friends  one  of  another.  Progressives, 


EMPRESS   DOWAGER   OF   CHINA     323 

moderates,  and  reactionaries  alike,  they  were  linked 
together  only  by  devotion  to  China  and  by  the  favour 
of  their  Imperial  mistress. 

Enough  has  been  said  earlier  of  Tze-hi's  attitude 
toward  the  internal  reform  of  China  to  render  it  un- 
necessary to  say  much  more  on  the  subject  here.  In 
view  of  her  hatred  of  the  Reformers  of  1898,  the 
foreign  reluctance  to  look  upon  her  as  a  genuine 
reformer  herself  is  easy  to  understand.  While  she 
was  still  fulminating  against  Kang  Yu-wei  and  sup- 
pressing free  speech  as  manifested  in  the  Press,  it  was 
plausible  to  consider  as  mere  posing  her  protestations 
of  being  held  back  by  her  people's  slowness  to  move, 
while  she  was  at  heart  a  true  progressive.  But, 
putting  together  the  facts  of  her  quarrel  with  Kang 
Yu-wei  and  the  startling  changes  which  she  intro- 
duced in  all  departments  of  Chinese  life  after  1902, 
we  cannot  resist  the  conviction  that  she  stated  the 
case  truthfully  when  she  said  that  she  was  waiting  for 
proofs  of  a  general  demand  on  the  part  of  her  people. 
There  was  no  such  general  demand  in  1898,  as  was 
shown  by  the  opposition  which  Kwanghsu  met.  The 
Boxers' fiasco  in  1900-1  brought  about  the  desirable 
change  in  public  sentiment,  and  put  it  in  the  power 
of  the  Empress  Dowager  to  lead  a  really  progressive 
movement.  Had  it  been  possible  for  a  more  skilful 
advocate  of  reform  than  Kang  Yu-wei  to  obtain  her 
ear  earlier  in  the  day,  history  might  have  been  very 
different.  But  there  would  assuredly  have  been  no 
wild  outpouring  of  edicts  such  as  that  with  which  the 


324   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

Emperor  endeavoured  in  the  course  of  three  months 
to  alter  the  most  conservative  people  in  the  world 
into  a  modern  progressive  nation.  The  type  of 
reformer  needed  by  China  was  that  which  Tze-hi 
claimed  herself  to  be.  "A  gradual  reform  in  the 
method  of  government  has  begun,"  she  said  in  her 
last  edict.  It  was  a  gradual  reform  which  alone 
could  do  any  good.1  Seeing  how  successful  the 
Empress  was  in  establishing  her  reforms  upon  a 
solid  basis,  shall  we  deny  her  the  credit  of  sincerity 
when  she  professed  to  be  guiding  her  people  on  the 
upward  path  which  she  desired  to  see  them  taking  ? 

An  excellent  short  summary  of  the  Empress's 
characteristics,  written  during  her  lifetime,  is  given 
by  the  late  Mr.  Alexander  Michie  in  his  Englishman 
in  China.  They  are,  he  says,  "  clearness  of  pur- 
pose, strength  of  will,  a  ready  accommodation  of 
means  to  end,  and  frank  acceptance  of  the  inevitable. 
.  .  .  Mundane  in  her  objects,  she  is  practical  in  seek- 
ing them  ;  and,  if  to  hold  an  entirely  anomalous 
position  of  authority  opposed  to  legitimacy  and  the 
traditions  of  the  dynasty  and  the  Empire  be  evidence 
of  success,  then  the  Empress  Dowager  must  be  ad- 
mitted to  be  a  successful  woman." 

Coming   now   to    those   of  Tze-hi's    good    points, 

1  The  present  Regency  on  June  ayth  of  the  current  year  endorsed 
this  policy  when,  in  reply  to  a  memorial  presented  by  delegates  repre- 
senting the  provinces  and  Chinese  communities  oversea  asking  for  a 
Constitution  at  once,  a  peremptory  rescript  stated  that  it  is  impossible 
to  shorten  the  period  of  nine  years,  the  people  not  yet  being  ripe  for 
Constitutional  rights. 


EMPRESS   DOWAGER   OF   CHINA     325 

which  may  be  called  graces  rather  than  virtues,  we 
see  friends  and  enemies  alike  agreed  as  to  her  tactful- 
ness,  though  the  enemies  were  inclined  to  call  it  by  a 
harder  name.  Readers  of  the  works  of  her  American 
partisans  will  find  abundant  examples  of  the  tact  with 
which  she  handled  her  visitors  from  the  West.  We 
will  add  a  story  to  show  how  toward  her  own  subjects 
she  could  display  the  same  admirable  quality.  In  the 
early  part  of  1882  Li  Hung-chang's  aged  mother  was 
seriously  ill,  and  Li,  whose  constant  employment  in 
his  country's  business  had  prevented  him  from  pay- 
ing her  a  visit  since  1870,  petitioned  for  leave  of 
absence  from  Chihli.  The  Empress  granted  his  re- 
quest, and  presented  him  with  eight  ounces  of  that 
Chinese  panacea,  "  ginseng,"  to  take  to  his  mother.1 
Unhappily  the  old  lady  died  before  Li  reached  home. 
He  wrote  asking  permission  to  retire  into  the  usual 
twenty-seven  months'  mourning  for  a  parent,  resign- 
ing his  offices  as  Grand  Secretary  and  Viceroy.  The 
Empress,  however,  answered  with  an  edict,  telling  him 
to  mourn  one  hundred  days  and  to  retain  his  posts. 
"  This  is  the  conduct  which  will  bring  to  a  mother's 
mind  the  comforting  conviction  that  her  son,  follow- 

1  She  made  a  similar  gift  of  ginseng  pills  to  Yuan  Shi-kai  in  the 
month  before  her  own  death,  having  heard  that  he  was  indisposed. 
And,  indeed,  at  all  times  she  was  fond  of  distributing  Chinese  medi- 
cines, it  would  appear.  When  one  of  her  generals  in  1888,  reporting 
his  suppression  of  the  Hainan  aborigines'  revolt,  spoke  of  the  unhealthy 
climate  with  which  his  troops  had  contended,  she  sent  a  present  of  ten 
boxes  of  "  Pills  of  Peace  and  Prosperity  "  !  Were  these  for  the  whole 
army  or  for  the  general's  personal  consumption,  we  may  wonder. 


326   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

ing  the  precepts  early  instilled  into  him,  is  devoting 
himself  to  the  service  of  his  country."  And  when 
Yuan  Shi-kai's  mother  died  in  1900,  the  Empress 
met  his  request  for  twenty-seven  months'  leave  with 
an  almost  identical  answer. 

Had  it  not  been  for  her  conduct  toward  Kwanghsu, 
she  might  have  gone  down  to  posterity  as  an  affec- 
tionate kinswoman,  on  the  testimony  of  the  foreign 
ladies  who  had  the  best  opportunities  of  judging  her 
in  private  life.  Her  own  family  had  no  cause  for 
complaining  that  she  neglected  them,  particularly  her 
nieces,  whom  she  delighted  to  have  about  her  at  the 
Palace,  and  for  whom  she  made  excellent  marriages. 
Also  she  seems  to  have  been  kind  to  all  the  princesses 
of  the  Imperial  family,  including  the  many  daughters 
of  Prince  Ching,  whom  she  always  held  in  high 
esteem  ;  and  Prince  Kung's  daughter  she  adopted  as 
her  own,  we  have  seen,  giving  her  the  rank  of  Prin- 
cess Imperial,  before  whom  even  the  highest  princes 
must  bow.  In  her  suite  she  kept  numerous  widowed 
ladies  of  rank,  condemned  by  Chinese  and  Manchu 
custom  to  perpetual  mourning,  but,  thanks  to  her 
care,  given  lives  of  ease  and  comfort.  Reading  the 
few  first-hand  descriptions  of  Palace  life  by  foreign 
observers,  we  find  it  more  than  difficult  to  credit  the 
infamous  gossip  of  Peking  about  the  mistress  of  the 
Palace. 

It  is  clear  that  one  of  Tze-hi's  chief  charms  was 
the  magnetism  of  her  personality,  which  affected 
almost  every  Westerner  who  met  her  face  to  face. 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  TWO  PRIVATE  SEALS  OF  THE  EMPRESS  DOWAGER, 
NOW  THE  PROPERTY  OF  LADY  RAINES 

[The  seals  are  of  light-coloured  jade,  each  being  5}  inches  long, 
zf  inches  broad,  and  4  inches  high,  and  weighing  3  Ib.  6  oz.] 


I.    U»ed  by  Her  Majesty  on  her  visiting-card* 
II.    Used  by  Her  Majesty  (or  sealing  paintings  executed  by  her  own  hand 


328    GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

In  her  there  appeared  a  combination  of  force  and 
grace  which  was  wonderfully  attractive.  No  one 
could  doubt  her  enormous  will-power,  yet  there  was 
about  her  a  surprising  softness  and  gentleness  of 
exterior  which  seldom  allowed  her  temper  to  show 
through.1  Her  manners  were  celebrated  for  their 
perfection,  and  the  cultivation  of  her  mind  was  always 
manifest.  We  have  seen  how  she  devoted  herself  to 
the  study  of  the  Chinese  Classics,  and  made  for  her- 
self a  name  as  a  scholar.  She  spoke  the  language 
with  remarkable  purity,  and  handled  the  brush  in 
a  way  which  excited  admiration  in  a  nation  which 
thinks  exceedingly  highly  of  the  Oriental  equivalent 
for  penmanship.  As  a  painter  she  prided  herself  not 
a  little,  and  Professor  Headland  asserts  that  if  she 
had  given  her  whole  time  to  painting  she  would  have 
been  one  of  the  great  artists  of  the  present  dynasty. 
Her  most  valued  gifts  to  her  favourites,  native  or 
foreign,  were  specimens  of  her  skill,  chiefly  beautiful 
examples  of  the  characters  (so  well  known  to  all  who 
visit  China),  signifying  "  Happiness,"  "  Long  Life," 
"  Fortune,"  or  "  Peace,"  and  paintings  of  flower- 
subjects,  stamped  with  an  impress  of  the  jade  seal, 
which  she  kept  for  the  purpose. 

Her  passion  for  flowers  was  notorious,  even  in 
China,  where  flowers  give  such  universal  delight. 
Her  gardens  at  both  the  Winter  and  the  Summer 
Palaces  were  exceedingly  beautiful,  and  at  the  former, 

1  We  could  wish,  however,  for  some  more  evidence  as  to  her 
behaviour  at  the  time  of  her  Boxer  enthusiasm.  See  p.  236. 


EMPRESS   DOWAGER   OF   CHINA     329 

in  the  South-western  corner  of  the  Forbidden  City, 
there  was  a  miniature  rock-garden  which  had  no  rival 
in  the  world,  unless  it  were  in  Japan.  She  was  also 
very  fond  of  animals — except  cats.1  She  had  her  own 
breed  of  dogs,  since  1901  introduced  into  the  West, 
but  up  to  then  jealously  kept  within  the  Forbidden 
City.  Birds  also  she  loved,  and  Miss  Carl  tells  a 
pretty  tale  of  her  enticing  back  to  her  one  which  had 
escaped  from  its  cage  into  the  Palace  grounds. 

Foreigners  who  penetrated  into  the  "  Six  Palaces  " 
and  helped  to  loot  and  ravage  them  after  the  flight  of 
the  Court  to  Sianfu  were  not  altogether  favourably 
impressed  by  the  taste  shown  in  the  decoration  of  the 
rooms.  Nor,  as  has  been  remarked  before,  did  the 
Empress's  restorations  at  the  Summer  Palace  give 
satisfaction  to  the  critics.  But  it  is  not  to  palaces  that 
we  must  go  for  the  gratification  of  the  artistic  sense 
in  any  part  of  the  world.  This  was  probably  true  of 
Sennacherib's  "  Palace  that  has  no  rival  "  at  Nineveh, 
and  is  certainly  the  case  nowadays  in  Europe.  The 
Forbidden  City  was  even  more  of  a  museum  than 
most  abodes  of  royalty,  and  contained  treasures  and 
gifts  coming  together  from  everywhere,  to  harmonize 
as  best  they  could.  Tze-hi's  personal  residence,  the 
Ying  Tai  Palace,  was  finest  of  the  imperial  buildings, 
and  its  ornamentation  was  also  in  the  best  taste,  with 
a  less  display  of  European  and  American  objects  than 

1  The  cat  which  Pierre  Loti  met  in  the  Imperial  Palace,  therefore, 
must  have  been  one  of  those  which  some  of  the  Palace  inmates  were 
said  to  keep  on  the  sly. 


330   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

in  the  Emperor's  abode.  The  Chinese  contribution 
to  the  decorations  of  the  rooms  was  beyond  cavil, 
with  its  magnificent  blackwood  carvings,  its  tapestries 
and  silk  hangings,  its  porcelain  of  the  best  period  of 
the  Manchu  dynasty,  and  its  priceless  paintings  by 
the  Old  Masters  of  the  Empire.  In  Tze-hi's  own 
bedroom,  too,  there  was  a  fine  austerity — and  only 
one  clock.1  A  bed  with  a  yellow  satin  mattress,  a  silk 
cover,  and  long  curtains  reaching  from  the  ceiling  to 
the  floor,  a  small  table,  a  few  simple  wall-decorations, 
and  a  brick  kang  (the  ordinary  Chinese  bed)  for  the 
maid  in  attendance  on  Her  Majesty,  were,  according 
to  Professor  Headland,  all  that  was  to  be  seen. 
Attached  to  it  was  an  oratory  with  an  altar  crowded 
with  Chinese  Buddhist  divinities,  chief  of  which  was 
the  old  wooden  image  of  the  Buddha  himself,  which 
M.  Pierre  Loti  saw  there  in  1900. 

In  her  person  the  Empress  Dowager  was  scrupu- 
lously particular,  having  her  own  soaps  and  perfumes 
manufactured  in  the  Palace.  She  was  very  fond  of 
scent,  but  used  no  cosmetics,  which  are  not  allowed  to 
widows  in  China. 

In  her  youth  Tze-hi  was  esteemed  a  great  beauty. 
Indeed,  to  her  looks  she  owed  her  first  chance  of  rising 
to  fame  through  her  attraction  of  the  notice  of  the 
Emperor  Hienfung.  Westerners  had  no  opportunity 
of  judging  her  appearance  until  she  was  a  long  way 
past  the  prime  of  life,  especially  for  an  Asiatic  woman. 

1  The  Emperor's  rooms  were  full  of  clocks,  and  there  were  no  less 
than  eighty-five  in  the  throne-room  at  the  Summer  Palace ! 


EMPRESS   DOWAGER   OF   CHINA     331 

There  is,  therefore,  a  reasonable  divergence  of  views 
among  them  on  the  subject. 

Miss  Carl,  who  painted  her  portrait  and  thus  neces- 
sarily observed  the  Empress  more  closely,  describes 
her  as  follows  : — 

"  A  perfectly  proportioned  figure,  with  head  well 
set  upon  her  shoulders  and  a  fine  presence  ;  really 
beautiful  hands,  daintily  small  and  high-bred  in  shape  ; 
a  symmetrical,  well-formed  head,  with  a  good  de- 
velopment above  the  rather  large  ears  ;  jet-black  hair, 
smoothly  parted  over  a  fine,  broad  brow  ;  delicate, 
well-arched  eyebrows  ;  brilliant  black  eyes,  set  per- 
fectly straight  in  the  head  ;  a  high  nose  of  the  type 
the  Chinese  call  *  noble,'  broad  between  the  eyes  and 
on  a  line  with  the  forehead  ;  an  upper  lip  of  great 
firmness  ;  a  rather  large  but  beautiful  mouth,  with 
mobile  red  lips,  which,  when  parted  over  her  firm 
white  teeth,  gave  her  smile  a  rare  charm  ;  a  strong 
chin,  but  not  of  exaggerated  firmness,  and  with  no 
marks  of  obstinacy.  Had  I  not  known  she  was  near- 
ing  her  sixty-ninth  year,  I  should  have  thought  her  a 
well-preserved  woman  of  forty." 

Mrs.  Conger's  opinion  we  have  already  seen.  Like 
most  American  witnesses,  she  is  very  enthusiastic. 
English  ladies  are  far  less  favourable  to  Tze-hi's  looks. 
Mrs.  Archibald  Little,  describing  her  one  day  about 
the  same  period  as  Miss  Carl,  says l  : — "  On  this 
occasion  she  certainly  looked  her  age,  sixty-eight,  with 
very  broad  face  and  many  double  chins.  Her  eyes, 
1  Round  About  my  Peking  Garden,  pp.  50-1. 


332    GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

the  longest  probably  ever  seen,  remained  cast  down, 
and  though  there  was  a  great  appearance  of  gracious- 
ness,  the  smile,  whose  coldness  is  said  to  chill  even 
foreign  ministers,  was  absent.  Yet,  as  she  stood  still 
and  silent,  one  felt  the  magnetic  power  of  the  woman." 
But  she  goes  on  to  speak  of  "  the  Empress  Dowager's 
pleasantly  flattering  face,  with  falsity  written  large 
over  every  line  of  the  apparently  good-humoured 
surface." 

Again,  Lady  Susan  Townley,  also  writing  about 
the  same  time,  says1  :  "  Her  age  is  sixty-eight,  as 
she  told  us  herself,  but  her  hair  being  dyed  jet- 
black  and  most  of  it  artificial,  her  appearance  is  that 
of  a  much  younger  woman." 

After  these  feminine  criticisms  we  may  give  one 
from  a  male  observer,  Dr.  W.  A.  P.  Martin,  the 
veteran  missionary,  who  writes  : — 

"A  trifle  under  the  average  height  of  European 
ladies,  so  perfect  are  her  proportions  and  so  graceful 
her  carriage  that  she  seems  to  need  nothing  to  add  to 
her  majesty.  Her  features  are  vivacious  and  pleasing 
rather  than  beautiful  ;  her  complexion  not  yellow  but 
sub-olive,  and  her  face  illuminated  by  orbs  of  jet 
half  hidden  by  dark  lashes,  behind  which  lurk  the 
smiles  of  favour  or  the  lightning  of  anger.  No  one 
would  take  her  to  be  over  forty." 

It  is  interesting  to  compare  with  these  Western 
criticisms  the  eulogy  of  a  Chinese  Court  poet,  written 
when  Tze-hi  was  about  twenty-five  years  of  age.  An 

1  My  Chinese  Notebook. 


EMPRESS    DOWAGER   OF   CHINA     333 

English  prose  version1  of  the  poem  has  been  given  in 
its  entirety  by  several  writers  about  the  Empress 
Dowager,  but  nevertheless  we  may  perhaps  be  per- 
mitted to  quote  here  five  of  the  seven  stanzas  : — 

In  the  firmament  of  the  Son  of  Heaven 
A  brilliant  new  star  has  risen  ! 
Supple  as  the  neck  of  the  swan, 
Is  the  charm  of  her  graceful  form. 

From  the  firm  contour  of  charming  chin 
Springs  the  faultless  oval  of  her  fair  face, 
Crowned  by  the  harmonious  arch 
Of  a  broad  and  noble  brow. 

The  stately  profile,  chiselled  clear, 
Is  dominated  by  the  pure  line  of  noble  nose, 
Straight  and  slender  and  singularly  mobile, 
Sensitive  to  all  the  impressions  of  the  soul. 


When  stern  circumstance  demands, 

Her  graceful  form  an  attitude  of  firmness  takes, 

The  soft  glow  of  her  brilliant  eyes 

Grows  penetrating  and  holds  one  with  proud  authority. 

O  beauty  Supreme !     O  brilliant  Star 

Shining  but  for  the  Son  of  Heaven  ! 

From  thy  glowing  soul  radiate 

Love,  daring,  hope,  intellect,  ambition,  power ! 

Tze-hi,  in  her  old  age  at  least,  appears  to  have 
considered  her  own  best  points  to  have  been  her 
hands  and  feet.  We  have  seen  how  she  wore  her 
nails  very  long,  with  protectors  of  jade  or  of  gold  set 

1  Unfortunately  I  do  not  know  the  translator's  name,  so  am  unable 
to  make  the  proper  acknowledgment  to  him. 


334   GREAT  EMPRESS  DOWAGER  OF  CHINA 

with  jewels  over  them.  Her  feet,  not  bound  like 
those  of  so  many  of  her  Chinese  women-subjects, 
were  naturally  very  small,  and  the  Manchu  slipper, 
with  its  six-inch  "  heel "  on  the  centre  of  the  sole,  was 
calculated  to  set  them  off  to  advantage,  while  adding 
considerably  to  her  stature,  which  was  only  five  feet. 
Her  hair,  as  is  usually  the  case  with  Manchu  women, 
had  been  very  abundant,  however  correct  Lady  Susan 
Townley  may  have  been  in  her  suspicions  about 
it  later.  Her  smile,  which  Mrs.  Little  found  so  cold, 
was  generally  considered  attractive.  Her  voice  was 
very  juvenile  and  silvery  in  tone,  suggesting  the  age 
of  seventeen  even  when  she  was  nearly  seventy. 

On  the  whole,  the  impression  given  is  that  of  a 
marvellously  well-preserved  woman,  with  the  remains 
of  looks  which  must  in  earlier  life  have  been  very 
good,  judged  even  by  Western  standards.  Such  few 
photographs  as  she  permitted  to  be  taken  of  her 
toward  the  end  of  her  reign  are  rather  cruel  ;  for  the 
camera  is  not  wont  to  flatter  old  age.  On  the  other 
hand,  Miss  Carl's  portrait  of  her  for  the  St.  Louis 
exposition  is  undoubtedly  kind — and,  of  necessity  no 
doubt,  conventional.  In  it  we  fail  to  see  the  little  old 
woman,  five  feet  high  and  seventy  years  old,  who  sat 
so  long  upon  an  usurped  throne,  not  loved  but  ex- 
ceedingly revered  by  four  hundred  and  twenty 
millions  of  her  own  subjects,  and  not  liked  but 
undoubtedly  at  least  respected  by  the  rest  of  the 
world. 

Perhaps  it  was  an  impossible   task   to  produce  a 


EMPRESS    DOWAGER   OF   CHINA     335 

satisfactory  picture  of  this  astonishing  woman  with 
the  brush.  That  he  has  also  failed  to  do  so  with  the 
pen,  the  author  of  the  present  work  is  only  too  well 
aware  ;  for  which  reason,  in  summing  up,  he  refrains 
from  attempting  to  indicate  definitely  which  way  the 
verdict  on  her  character  ought  to  go.  It  may  be  that, 
when  the  events  of  China's  history  between  1861  and 
1908  have  receded  further  from  us,  and  the  outcome 
of  the  now  progressing  "regeneration"  of  the  country 
has  become  manifest,  it  will  be  less  difficult  to 
appraise  at  its  true  value  the  remarkable  personality 
of  Tze-hi,  the  Empress  Dowager — or,  to  give  her  the 
full  title  which  was  bestowed  upon  her  gradually 
during  her  lifetime,  Tz'tt-Hsi  Tuan-Yu  K{ang-I 
Chao-Yii  Chuang-Ch{£ng  Shou-Kung  Ch'in-Hsien 
Ch'ung-Hsi — the  Loving-hearted  and  Fortunate,  Up- 
right and  Aiding  (the  State),  Happy  and  Careful 
(of  her  remaining  years),  Bright  and  Pleasant,  Earnest 
and  True,  Long-lived  and  Serious,  Reverent  and 
Good,  Exalted  and  Brilliant.1 

1  I  am  indebted  to  the  kindness  of  Sir  James  Stewart  Lockhart, 
High  Commissioner  of  Weihaiwei,  for  the  transliteration  and  trans- 
lation of  this  title.  The  spelling  used  in  this  instance  is  Sir  Thomas 
Wade's. 


APPENDIX 

THE  EMPRESS  DOWAGER'S  ORIGIN 

TN  his  extremely  interesting  book  on  Court  Life  in  China,  Mr. 
Isaac  Taylor  Headland,  Professor  in  the  Peking  University, 
advances  a  new  theory  of  the  parentage  of  the  late  Empress 
Dowager.  His  curiosity  being  aroused  by  the  fact  that  his 
wife,  who  was  medical  attendant  for  many  years  to  a  number 
of  the  princesses  of  the  Imperial  and  allied  families,  including 
Tze-hi's  own  mother,  found  these  ladies  very  unwilling  to 
discuss  the  Dowager's  origin,  Professor  Headland  was 
prompted  to  make  researches  into  the  subject,  as  the  result  of 
which  he  came  to  the  conclusion  that  she  was  the  daughter  of 
a  man  called  Chao,  a  small  military  official  who  was  afterwards 
beheaded  for  some  neglect  of  duty ;  and  he  suggests  that  the 
Empress  Dowager,  in  her  desire  to  efface  all  memory  of  her 
childhood,  refused  to  allow  it  to  be  talked  about. 

In  a  sympathetic  notice  of  Court  Life  in  China  in  the  Asiatic 
Quarterly  Review  for  April,  1 910,  Professor  E.  H.  Parker 
writes  : — 

"  It  is  perfectly  well  known  that  she  (the  Empress  Dowa- 
ger) was  the  daughter  of  a  comparatively  petty  Manchu 
official,  named  Hweicheng,  of  the  Nala  clan,  and  therefore  it 
is  a  little  difficult  to  understand  why,  according  to  Mr.  Head- 
land, she,  or  her  minions,  should  have  made  so  much  mystery 
with  Mrs.  Headland  about  her  birth,  and  why  she  should 
have  been  half-furtively  described  as  the  daughter  of  one 
Chao.  Of  course,  it  is  physically,  if  not  legally,  possible  that 
she  was  only  adoptive  daughter  of  Hweicheng,  and,  if  Chao 
be  the  Chinese  surname  of  that  ilk,  that  Hweicheng  may  have 
adopted  a  Chinese  girl  as  one  of  his  daughters ;  or,  still  more 

336 


APPENDIX  337 

probably,  she  might  have  been  the  daughter  of  a  Chinese 
Bannerman.  For  instance,  the  present  (Chinese)  Viceroy  of 
Sz  Ch'wan  Chao  Erh-siin,  as  also  his  brother,  the  Generalis- 
simo on  the  Tibetan  frontier,  Chao  Erh-feng,  are  both  Banner- 
men — that  is  to  say,  organised  under  one  of  the  eight  military 
banners  after  the  fashion  of  the  genuine  Manchus,  and  thus 
presumably  m&rri&ge-fahig  and  adoption-fahig  with  true 
Manchus.  But  there  is  no  evidence  that  such  is  the  case  as 
yet  known  to  the  public,  and  in  view  of  the  other  cock-and- 
bull  stories  so  often  repeated  to  the  effect  that  the  old 
Dowager  was  merely  a  Cantonese  slave,  this  matter  ought  to 
be  authoritatively  cleared  up." 

Unhappily  there  seems  even  less  prospect  now,  after  the 
death  of  the  Empress  Dowager,  than  there  was  during  her 
lifetime  of  arriving  at  the  undisputable  truth. 


INDEX 


Abukhaye,    father    of    the    first 

Manchu  Emperor,  i 
Ahluta,  principal  wife  of  Tung- 

chih,  90-1,  108-10,  247,  314 
Amherst,  Lord,  93 
Ancestors,   Homage   to,   78,   83, 

103,  278 
Annam,  Franco-Chinese  relations 

in,  96,  119,  127 
Anti-foreign  outrages   in   China, 

28,  49,  65,  72,  82,  149-53,  165, 

190,  203,  215,  216,  230 
Arrow  War,  26  ff.,  5 1 
Audience    Question    at    Peking, 

92-6,  147-8,  153-5,259 

Banners,    Bannermen,    1-3,    39, 

266,  275,  Appendix 
Beresford,     Lord     Charles,     on 

China,  272 
"Big  Sword"  Society,  214,  223, 

228 

"Black  Flags,"  119,  227 
Bowring,  Sir  John,  27 
"Boxer"  Society,  49,  100,  21 2 ff., 

222  ff.,  241  ff. 
Britain   and   China,  6  ff.,  12  ff., 

26  ff.,  36,  89,  162,  166,  181 
Brooks,  Rev.  S.  M.,  Murder  of,  216 
Bruce,  Sir  Frederick,  first  British 

Minister  in  Peking,  39 
Buddhism   in   China,  50,  77,  83, 

165,  212 
Burgevine,  American  adventurer, 

55 
Burlingame  Mission,  62-3 

Canton,  8,  10,  12,  15,  26  ff.,  etc. 

Carl,  Miss  Katharine,  138  n.,  145, 
201,  318,  321,  331,  etc. 

Cassini  Convention,  168 

Categories  in  Imperial  family, 
103,  297 

Catherine  of  Russia,  Tze-hi  com- 
pared with,  i  oo,  283,  310,  315  n. 

Chang  Chih-tung,  Viceroy,  114, 
130,  203,  219,  291 

Chang  Pei-lung,  128,  159 


Changsha,  49 

Chao,  alleged  father  of  Tze-hi, 
Appendix 

Chihsiang.     See  Tungchih 

China  and  the  West,  5-6,  12  ff., 
45,  55,  teff-,  85^,  151,  162, 
165^,  1 8 1,  206,  218,  232  ff.,  250 

Ching,  Prince,  grandson  of  Em- 
peror Kienlung,  19,  41,  42 

Ching  (Yikwang),  Prince,  son  of 
preceding,  made  president  of 
Tsungli  Yamen,  122;  at  Court 
ceremonies,  154,  199;  joins 
deputation  to  Iho  Park,  184; 
in  favour  of  moderation  in 
1898,  189  n. ;  quarrel  with 
Yunglu,  208;  dismissed  from 
Tsungli  Yamen,  235 ;  at  Man- 
chu council  in  June,  1900,  238  ; 
left  behind  to  make  terms,  245, 
247 ;  associated  with  Li  Hung- 
cnang  in  Treaty  of  1900,  250; 
favours  reform,  270;  his  re- 
signation refused  by  Tze-hi,  275 ; 
his  death,  suspicions  concern- 
ing, 304 ;  popularity  with 
Westerners,  305 

Christianity  in  China,  78  ff.,  84, 
149.  See  also  Missionaries 

Chuang,  Prince,  221,  250  n.,  321 

Chun  (Yihwan),  Prince,  brother 
of  Heinfung,  married  to  Tze- 
hi's  sister,  20  «.,  61 ;  his  first 
public  action,  42 ;  suspected  of 
anti-foreign  sentiments,  65, 123; 
his  son  made  Emperor,  104; 
Tze-hi's  liking  for,  no,  122, 
316;  his  rise  to  power,  122; 
character  and  appearance, 
122-3;  becomes  more  liberal  in 
his  views,  123;  differences  with 
his  son,  149;  his  death,  148 

Chun  (Tsaifeng),  Prince,  present 
Regent  of  China,  his  name, 
103  n. ;  sympathy  with  his 
brother  Kwanghsu,  184,  297, 
305  ;  sent  on  mission  to  Ger- 
many, 250,  298  n. ;  supports 


338 


INDEX 


339 


reform,  270;  marries  Yunglu's 
daughter  (the  present  Empress 
Dowager  Chunghsi),  287,  297 ; 
appointed  Regent,  294-5  ;  his 
character    and    policy,   297-8, 
324  n. ;  imprisons  Li  Lien-ying, 
298  n. ;  deprives  Yuan  Shi-kai 
of   office,   303;    unfriendly    to 
Prince  Ching,  305 ;  at  Tze-hi's 
funeral,  307-8. 
Chunghow,  67,  72,  113-15 
Chunghsi,  daughter  of  Yunglu, 
present  Empress  Dowager  of 
China,  287,  303  n. 
Chung-wang,  the  "  Faithful  King," 

52-3 
Chungyi,  father   of  Ahluta,  90, 

109,  247 
Confucius,  Confucianism,    5,  77, 

95,  etc. 
Constitution,  Proposed,  for  China, 

268-9,  3°°,  324  n' 
Conger,  Mr.  E.  H.,  United  States 

Minister  in  Peking,  216,  229, 

248 

Conger,  Mrs.,  200,  261-3,  etc. 
Cooke,  Mr.  Wingrove,  27 
Courbet,  Admiral,  126 

Dalai  Lama,  293 

Detheve,  Dr.,  193 

Douglas,   Professor  R.,    82,    87, 

91  «.,  95  «.,  311  «.,  321  n. 
Dutch  in  China,  15,  93 

East  India  Company  in  China, 

7-8,  13 

Elgin,  Lord,  28,  29,  34-5 
Empress  Dowager.     SeeTze-hi 
Eunuchs,  Imperial,  23,  106,  144, 
164,   192.     See  also   Li   Lien- 
ying 
"  Ever  Victorious  Army,"  53,  55  n. 

Favier,  Monseigneur,  75,  229 

Fengtai  Riot,  230 

Fleming,  Rev.  W.  S.,  Murder 
of,  203 

Fontanier,  M.,  French  consul  at 
Tientsin,  68-9 

Foochow,  12,  19;  "Crowning 
Glory  of,"  126-7 

Fournier,  Li  Hung-chang's  con- 
vention with,  125 

France  and  China,  15,  28^!,  36, 
64,  70,  97.  i«8,  125.^,  162,  166 


Germany  and  China,  15,  162, 
165,  248,  259 

Giles,  Professor  H.  A.,  22  «., 
172  n. 

Gordon,  "Chinese,"  63,  55  ».,  60 

Grand  Council  and  Secretariat, 
44* 

Gros,  Baron,  French  plenipoten- 
tiary, 29 

Hakkas,  46,  48,  54 

Hanlin  Academy,  50,  59 

Harem,  Imperial,  2,  21,  22  «.,  24 

Hart,  Sir  Robert,  127 

Headland,  Professor  I.  T.,  21  »., 
109,  189,  Appendix,  etc. 

Headland,  Mrs.,  21  «.,  201,  261, 
279,  Appendix,  etc. 

Henry,  Prince, of  Prussia,  170, 198 

Hienfung  (Yichu),  Emperor,  hus- 
band of  Tze-hi,  3,  5,  18^,  52, 
93-4,  97,  102,  107,  245 

Hongkong,  12,  27,  36,  39,  181 

Hope,  Admiral,  31 

Hsuantung  (Puyi),  present  Em- 
peror of  China,  103  «.,  288,  294, 
296,  301 

Hung  Hsiu-tsuan,  Taiping  Em- 
peror, 46^:,  53-4 

Hweicheng,  father  of  Tze-hi,  1-2, 
Appendix 

I,  Prince  (Tsaiyuan),  19,  32,  41-2 
/    Ho    Kwan.      See    "Boxer" 

Society 

Iho  Park,  142-3,  169,  etc. 
Hi  (Kuldja)  retrocession  question, 

H3-15 
Indemnities,  China's,  12,  36,  72, 

88,  113,  125,  127,  166,251 
Inheritance,  Imperial  law  of,  102, 

107,  297 
Italy  and  Sanmoon  Bay,  205,  217 

Japan  and  China,  96,  129,  153, 
159  61,205,  206,  253,389 

Jehol,  33,  39-41,  93,  226 

Jesuits  in  China  under  Ta  Tsing 
dynasty,  17,  34,  78 

Josephine,  Empress,  Tze-hi  com- 
pared with,  144,  318 

Kanghi,  Emperor,  17,  259 
Kang  Kwang-jen,  reformer,  186, 

1 88 
Kangyi,  Manchu  official,  197,  202, 

207,221,236,247,250*. 


34° 


INDEX 


Kang  Yu-wei,  reform  leader,  164, 
171,  182,  185-6,  188-90,  209, 
218,  281,  313,  323 

Ketteler,  Baron  von,  227,  235, 
239-40,  243,  250 

Kiaking,  Emperor,  7,  17,  93,  220 

Kiaochau,  seizure  of,  165 

Kienlung,  Emperor,  3,  7,  17,  19, 
93,  148,  156 

King  Lien-Shan,  225 

Korean  question,  128^,  159-60 

Kowtow,  92-3 

Kung,  Prince  (Yihin),  brother  of 
Hienfung,  first  appearance  in 
history,  33  ;  Chinese  plenipo- 
tentiary, 33  ;  ratifies  Tientsin 
Treaty,  36 ;  his  intrigues  at 
Jehol,  40  ff. ;  master  of  China 
with  the  Empresses  Regent, 
43,  55  5  his  first  disgrace,  57  ; 
reinstated,  58  ;  his  daughter 
made  Imperial  Princess,  58, 
326 ;  his  conduct  in  Tientsin 
massacre  negotiations,  70 ; 
and  Tsungli  Yamen's  circular 
note,  85-9 ;  and  the  Audience 
question,  94  ;  adherence  to  tra- 
dition, 95  ;  degraded  by  Tung- 
chih,  98  ;  reinstated  again,  99  ; 
father  of  a  possible  Emperor, 
103  ;  his  power  restrained  by 
Tze-hi,  no;  against  war  with 
Russia,  114;  dismissed  from  all 
offices,  1 1 8,  1 20  ;  his  character, 
1 20- 1  ;  partially  restored  to 
power  by  Kwanghsu,  148 ; 
reports  on  Kang  Yu-wei's 
memorial,  172  ;  his  death,  174 

Kwanghsu  (Tsaitien),  Emperor, 
chosen  as  Emperor  by  Tze-hi, 
104 ;  irregular  position  on 
throne,  107,  226,  297  ;  coming 
of  age,  130;  character,  etc., 
132  ff.,  281  ;  and  foreign  ideas, 
I33~4>  J64  ;  his  relations  with 
his  aunt,  134,  140,  146,  193, 
195,  210,  227,  295,  312,  326; 
his  marriage,  139-41  ;  begins 
actual  reign,  147 ;  loses  his 
father,  148 ;  publishes  edict 
friendly  to  Christians,  149  ;  his 
study  of  Western  thought, 
163-4  ;  emancipates  himself, 
1 68  ;  embarks  with  Kang  Yu- 
wei  on  reform,  171  ff.\  and 


Yuan  Shi-kai,  175,  184,  195, 
280,  302  ;  his  reform  pro- 
gramme, 176-80,  266,  267  ; 
undue  haste  of,  180,  323  ;  be- 
trayed, 184  ;  made  prisoner  by 
Tze-hi,  1 86  ;  edicts  put  into  his 
mouth,  186-9  ;  rumours  of  his 
coming  death,  192  ;  his  hopes 
of  vengeance,  195,  280 ;  com- 
pelled to  appoint  successor, 
223 ;  his  childlessness,  225  ; 
protests  against  war  in  1900, 
237-8 ;  his  "  declaration  of 
war,"  241  ;  his  flight  with 
Tze-hi,  245 ;  starts  back  for 
Peking,  253  ;  still  in  the  shade, 
278 ;  his  serious  prostration, 
280 ;  rumours  of  his  restora- 
tion, 288  ;  his  illness  in  1908, 
289,  291,  293  ;  last  edict,  295  ; 
death,  295-6  ;  rumours  of  foul 
play,  302,  314;  his  funeral, 
305-6 

Kwangchouwan  ceded  to  France, 
1 66 

Kwei  or  Kweisiang,  brother  of 
Tze-hi,  20  «.,  137 

Kweichun,  Manchu  official,  203 

Kweiliang,  Manchu  official,  30,  31, 
33,93 

Liang  Chi-chao,  reformer,  281  n. 

Li  Ching-fung,  "  Lord  Li,"  son  of 
Li  Hung-chang,present  Chinese 
Minister  in  London,  161 

Li  Hung-chang,  first  appearance, 
53;  distinguished  in  Taiping 
rebellion,  59, 60 ;  birthplace  and 
family,  60;  reward  for  services 
against  Taipings,  60 ;  taken  up 
by  Tze-hi,  61 ;  and  Tientsin 
massacre,  7 1 ;  Viceroy  of  Chihli, 
72 ;  becomes  chief  Chinese  of 
his  day,  73;  his  "policy  of  the 
weak,"  76,  1 68,  253  ;  supports 
1875  COUP  (Ptiat,  105;  services 
to  his  country,  in,  128,  252; 
action  after  Treaty  of  Livadia, 
125  ;  ends  war  with  France,  127 ; 
attacked  in  memorials,  128, 161 ; 
his  patronage  of  worthless  men, 
128  ;  and  war  with  Japan,  159- 
61 ;  his  mission  to  St.  Peters- 
burg, 167;  degraded  by 
Kwanghsu,  168;  his  pro-Russian 


INDEX 


341 


tendencies,  168, 179,  206, 252-3; 
dismissed  from  Tsungli  Yamen, 
179;  receives  fresh  honours 
from  Tze-hi,  196,  204;  sent  to 
Canton  as  Viceroy,  218;  trans- 
ferred to  Chihli,  243 ;  peace 
plenipotentiary,  244 ;  at  Peking 
in  1900,  247;  concludes  peace, 
250;  negotiations  with  Russia, 
252;  his  solution  of  the  Man- 
churian  question,  252-3 ;  death, 
252 ;  absurdly  described  as 
Tze-hi's  lover,  316 ;  his  mother's 
illness  and  death,  325. 

Li  Koh-chieh,  grandson  of  pre- 
ceding, 275  n. 

Li  Lien-ying,  head  eunuch  of 
Tze-hi,  145,  253-5,  283-6,  295, 
298  «.,  316,  317 

Li  Ping-heng,  anti-foreign  official, 
202,  250  «. 

Li  Kun-yi,  Viceroy,  130,203,  218, 
219 

Little,  Mrs.  A.,  263  #.,  287  «., 
310  «.,  331,  334 

Livadia,  Treaty  of,  113 

Loti,  M.  Pierre,  126,  246,  329  «., 
330 

Loch,  Sir  H.,  32 

Lu,  Viceroy,  9-11 

Lii,  Empress,  310  ».,  315  «. 

Macao,  8,  10,  n 
Macartney,  Lord,  93,  48 
Macdonald,  Sir  Claude,  179,  192, 

227-9,  234 

Macdonald,  Lady,  198-9 
Manchus,  1-4,  16,  117,  266,  275 
Margary,  Mr.,  murder  of,  1 1 1 
Martin,  Dr.  W.  A.  P.,  73  «.,  177, 

332 

Medhurst,  Mr.  W.  H.,  66 
Michie,  Mr.  A.,  85  «.,  324 
Mienning.     See  Taokwang 
Ming  dynasty,  i,  26,  48,  212 
Ministers,    Foreign,    in    Peking, 

29-31,  3.6,  3? 
Missionaries    in    China,    67,   70, 

7 3  »-,  7  5  .^,.149,  162,203 
Mohammedanism   in  China,   18, 

45,  55,77,96,  "2 

Nala  or  Kara,  Tze-hi's  clan,   I, 

Appendix 
Nanking,  26,  53,  59  ;  Treaty  of, 

8,  12,  19,  27 


Napier,  Lord,  %ff. 

Natung,  Manchu  official,  236-7, 

250,  275  n. 
Nienfei  rebellion,  61 

Opium  Question,  12  ff.>  27-8, 
31  ».,  273-4 

Palmerston,  Lord,  9 
Panthay  rebellion,  45,  55 
Paotingfu  massacre,  229 
Parker,    Professor   E.    H..  4   «., 

22    «.,    41    «.,    114    «.,     123    »,. 

2i2«.,  315  «.,  Appendix 

Parkes,  Sir  H.,  32 

Patenotre,  Li  Rung-Chang's  con- 
vention with,  127 

Peking,  i,  30,  36,  etc.  etc. ;  siege 
of  Legations,  241  ff. ;  Treaty  of, 
250-1 

Pichon,  M.,  French  Minister  in 
Peking,  229-30 

Poetry,  book  of,  106,  251-2 

Port  Arthur  ceded  to  Russia,  166 

Portugal  and  China,  14,  27,  205 

Puchun,  Prince,  former  heir-ap- 
parent, 103  ».,  224-5,  227,  255, 
278,  288 

Pulun,  Prince,  289,  297 

Puyi.     See  Hsuantung 

Puwei,  present  Prince  Kung,  289 

Reform  in  China — Kwanghsu's 
programme,  176-80 ;  Tze-hi 
as  reformer,  266  ff.,  323  ;  her 
policy  continued  by  present 
Regency,  297,  325  ». 

Reign  names,  18 

Roman  Catholics  in  China,  36, 
67,  80,  87.  See  also  Mission- 
aries 

Roberts,  Rev.,  American  mission- 
ary, 47 

Russia  and  China,  15,  30,93, 113, 
162, 166,  206,  223,  225,  252,  284 

Sankolinsin,  Mongol  general,  32-4 
Sanmoon    Bay,    Italy's    demand 

for,  205,217 

Seymour,  Admiral  Sir  M.,  28 
Seymour,  Admiral  Sir  E.  H.,  234 
Shanghai,  12,  52,  53  ;  Treaty  of, 

3°,  89 

Shimonoseki,  Treaty  of,  161 
Smith,  Rev.  A.  H.,  79,  88,  126  »., 

162,  201  ».,  223,  242  «.,  248, 

315 


342 


INDEX 


Societies,     Secret.      See     "  Big 

Sword,"     "  Boxer,"      Taiping, 

Triad,  "White  Lily" 
Spain  and  China,  14,  205 
Su,  Prince,  238 
Sugiyama,  Mr.,  murder  of,  234, 

243,  250 
Summer  Palace,  34-5,  142,  193, 

etc. 
Sun    Yat-sen,    reformer    leader, 

281,  290-1 
Sushun,  Manchu  official,  19,  41-3 

Taiping  rebellion,  19,  26,  45  ff., 

54,  119,214 

Taku  forts,  39,  31,  238,  251 
Talienwan     (Dalny)     ceded     to 

Russia,  1 66 
Taoism  in  China,  77 
Taokwang  (Mienning),  Emperor, 

7,  17,  1 8,  93,  220 

Ta  Tap  Hui.    See  Boxer  Society 
Ta  Tsing  dynasty,  7,  16,  24,  51, 

102,  106,  214 
Tieh  Liang,  270,  292 
Tientsin,  30,  66 ;   Massacre,  64- 

73,  8 1 ;  Treaty  of,  30-1,  36,  64, 

150 

Tongkmg,  97,  118 
Townley,  Lady  Susan,  332,  324 
Treaties.       See    under    Cassini, 

Fournier,     Livadia,    Nanking, 

Patenotre,    Peking,   Shanghai, 

Tientsin 

Triad  Society,  18,  48,  50 
Tsaichen,  Prince,  son  of  Prince 

Ching  (Yikwang),  270,  275,  304 
Tsaiching,  Prince,  son  of  Prince 

Kung  (Yihin),  98,  103,  106,  121 
Tsaichun.     See  Tungchih 
Tsaifeng.       See     Chun,     Prince 

Regent 
Tsaitien.      See     Kwanghsu, 

Emperor 

Tsaitso,  Prince,  103  n. 
Tsaiyuan.     See  I,  Prince 
Tseng     Kwo-fan,    Viceroy     and 

General,  49,  53,  59,  6|-6,  71,  73 
Tseng  Ki-tseh,  "  Marquis,"  son  of 

preceding,     first      Chinese 

Minister  in  London,  136,  164 
Tso    Tsung-tang,    Viceroy    and 

General,  96,  112 
Tsui  An,  eunuch  of  Tze-hi,  285, 

292 


Tsungli  Yamen,  41,  65,  70,  81, 
85-9,  94,  H7,  171,  205,  220, 
227-9,  231,  240,  243-4,  251 

Tuan  (Tsaiyi),  Prince,  151,  220, 
224,  232,  235,  237,  250  «.,  253 

Tuan-fang,  Manchu  Viceroy,  203, 
268 

Tun  (Yitsung),  Prince,  father  of 
Prince  Tuan,  220 

Tungan  rebellion,  55,  112 

Tungchih   (Tsaichun),    Emperor, 

24,  4i,  45,  90  ff-,  94-5,  97^, 
102,  105,  107,  297,  314 

Tung  Fu-hsiang,  General,  151, 
191,  231,  234,  243,  250  n. 

Tze-an,  Empress  (Dowager)  of 
the  Eastern  Palace,  senior  wife 
of  Hienfung,  22,  24,  25,  40^, 
91,98,  104,  1 10,  116,  134 

Tze-hi,  Empress  Dowager  of 
China,  her  birth,  I,  6;  family, 
I,  20,  Appendix;  stories  of 
Cantonese  origin,  etc.,  2-3, 
Appendix;  her  upbringing,  4, 
20 ;  education,  5,  23 ;  first 
knowledge  of  the  Western 
nations,  5,  37,  44;  enters 
Imperial  harem,  21 ;  her  rise 
in  rank,  22-4 ;  bears  a  son,  23 ; 
her  relations  with  Tze-an,  24, 
116,  314;  accompanies  Hien- 
fung to  Jehol,  33,  37 ;  and 
Hienfung's  death,  40;  plots 
with  Prince  Kung,  40,  42 ;  and 
the  1 86 1  coup  d'ttat,  43;  joint 
Regent,  45 ;  her  quarrel  with 
Kung,  57-8 ;  attaches  Li  Hung- 
chang  to  her,  61 ;  chooses  wife 
for  her  son,  91 ;  retires  into 
private  life,  92;  prevents  Kung's 
degradation,  99;  and  Tung- 
chih's  death,  99;  makes 
Kwanghsu  Emperor,  104;  joint 
Regent  again,  106;  sole 
Regent,  117;  gets  rid  of  Prince 
Kung,  118  ff;  puts  Prince 
Chun  in  his  place,  122;  her 
regency  prolonged,  131 ;  her 
training  of  Kwanghsu,  134; 
chooses  wife  for  Kwanghsu,  137 ; 
her  second  retirement  into  pri- 
vate life,  141  ff.  ;  still  retains 
some  power,  146,  170  ;  her  first 
Jubilee,  153,  155-8;  receives 
Prince  Henry  of  Prussia,  170; 


INDEX 


343 


promotes  her  nephew  Yunglu, 
175 ;  receives  deputations  at 
I  ho  Park,  179,  182,  185  ;  threat- 
ened by  the  Young  China 
party,  182-3  5  her  virulence 
against  them,  190,  218,  226, 
281,  312 ;  seizes  Kwanghsu, 
185  ;  issues  reactionary  edicts 
in  his  name,  186-9  5  her  inter- 
view with  Tung  Fu-hsiang, 
191  ;  effect  of  her  alliance  with 
reactionaries,  197-8,  203  ;  her 
first  reception  of  foreign  ladies, 
198 ;  secret  edicts  to  high 
officials,  205,  217;  desires 
alliance  with  Japan,  205  ;  her 
patronage  of  the  Boxers,  206 
ff. ;  her  rebuke  to  Yunglu,  208 ; 
plots  discovered  against  her, 
208-9  5  her  warlike  attitude  in 

1899,  217  ;  audience  to  Censor 
Wang,  221  ;  decree  favourable 
to  Boxers,  222 ;  chooses  Puchun 
heir-apparent,  223  ;   her  com- 
pact with  Prince  Tuan,   224 ; 
decides    to    fight    the    world, 
232-4  ;  at  council  of  June  i6th, 

1900,  235  ;  loses  confidence  in 
Boxers,    242-4 ;     appoints    Li 
Hung-chang     plenipotentiary, 
244  ;  flees  from  Peking,  245-7 ; 
tries    to    temporise,    248 ;     at 
Sianfu,  249  ;  starts  back,  253  ; 
disinherits    Puchun,   255  ;    re- 
turns to  Peking,  256-8  ;    first 
openly  receives  foreign  rep-"- 
sentatives,    260 ;    her    expres- 
sions of  regret,  260-2  ;  receives 
Legation  ladies,  261  ;  her  gifts 
to  them,  262,  264  ;  speaks  Eng- 
lish, 263  ;  declares  herself  re- 
former, 264  ;  her  reforms,  266 

jff. ;  compared  with  Kwanghsu's, 
266,     276 ;     rebukes     opposi- 
tion to  reforms,  270 ;  her  re- 
liance on  Yuan  Shi-kai,   271 
anti-opium     legislation,     273 
her  favour  to   Prince    Ching 
275.  320 ;  her  continued  sup 
pression    of    Kwanghsu,   278 
her    European    clothes,    283 
dismisses   Li   Lien-ying,  285 
her  second  Jubilee,   158,  281 
286 ;  loses  Yunglu,   287 ;  her 
alleged  determination  to  retire, 


288  ;  reported  ill,  289-90,  294  ; 
reconciles  Yuan  Shi-kai  and 
Chang  Chih-tung,  291  ;  her 
anxiety  about  succession  to 
throne,  294 ;  appoints  Prince 
Chun  Regent,  295  ;  partly 
paralysed,  298  ;  her  death,  299  ; 
farewell  edict,  299-301  ;  direc- 
tions about  mourning,  301-2  ; 
rumours  of  foul  play,  302  ;  her 
tomb,  306  ;  funeral,  306-9  ;  her 
relations  with  Kwanghsu,  134, 
140,  146,  193,  195,  210,  227, 
295,  312,  326;  with  Prince 
Kung,  40,  43,  57-8,  99,  104, 
1 20,  121  ;  with  Prince  Chun 
(Yihwan),  6r,  no,  122,  130, 
316;  with  Prince  Chun  (Tsai- 
feng),  227  ;  with  Li  Hung- 
chang,  61,  115,  128,  130,  1 60, 
1 68,  204,  243,  320,  325  ;  with 
Yunglu,  175,  208-9,  287  ;  with 
Yuan  Shi-kai,  130,  271,  291  ; 
her  character,  compared  with 
various  others,  Preface,  100, 
144,  283,  310,  315  «.,  318; 
ambition,  15,  314;  imperious- 
ness,  25  ;  tact,  25,  320,  325  ; 
ability  to  rise  superior  to  con- 
vention, 101,  118;  loyalty  to 
friends,  121,  128,  320  ;  affection 
for  her  family,  6r,  175,  326  ; 
kindness  to  Court  ladies,  326  ; 
wise  choice  of  men,  130,  320; 
strenuous  life,  321  ;  statesman- 
ship, quality  of  her,  322  ;  her 
theory  of  the  balance  of  power, 
110,151,175  ;  patriotism,  157-8, 
268,  318,  319,  321  ;  her  reforms, 
323-9,  190,  267  ff. ;  was  she 
anti-foreign?  151,  201-2;  con- 
duct toward  Western  women, 
25,  198,  258,  319;  attitude 
toward  Christianity,  75,  163, 
283 ;  question  of  her  sin- 
cerity, 264,  269,  282,  319 ; 
personal  morals,  144,  283, 
315-17  ;  alleged  cruelty,  189, 
312-13  ;  accusations  of  murder 
against,  40,  99,  108,  116,  314; 
superstition,  101,  158,  207,  256, 
317  ;  financial  dishonesty,  158, 
272,  317  ;  extravagance,  318  ; 
her  tastes,  143-4  ;  as  an  artist, 
328 ;  her  passion  for  flowers 


344 


INDEX 


and  animals,  329  ;  her  palaces, 
329-30;  dress,  318-19;  her 
looks,  3,  21,  330-4;  described 
by  Mrs.  Conger,  200,  261,  263  ; 
by  Miss  Carl,  318,  331  ;  by 
Mrs.  Little,  331  ;  by  Lady 
Susan  Townley,  332  ;  by  Rev. 
W.  A.  P.  Martin,  332  ;  by  a 
Court  poet,  333 ;  her  smile, 
191,  209,  332;  voice,  313  »., 
334;  personal  magnetism,  332; 
her  name  and  titles,  4,  22  »., 
24,  157,  286,  296;  translation 
of  her  sixteen  honorifics,  335. 

United  States  and  China,  16,  30, 
62,  88,  93 

Victorin,  Father,  murder  of,  203 

Wade,  Sir  T.,  69,  1 1 1 

Wai  Wu  Pu,  251,  295 

Wang,  Censor,  221 

Ward,    Mr.,    U.S.    Minister    in 

Peking,  93 
Weddell,  Captain,  15 
Weng       Tung-ho,       tutor       of 

Kwanghsu,  136,  172,  174 
Wensiang,    Manchu  official,   44, 

66,  89,  94 
Westerners  in  China.    See  China 

and    the    West     and     under 

separate  countries 
Weihaiwei  ceded  to  Britain,  166 
"White   Lily"  Society,   18,  212, 

214 

Wilkinson,  Mr.  W.  H.,  139  n. 
Wu,  Empress,  310  «.,  315  n. 
Wuhu  and  Wusueh  Riots,  149 

Yangchow  riot,  66,  82 

Yeh  Ming-chin,  Viceroy,  27-9 

Yehonala,  name  of  the  Empress 

Dowager.     See  Tze-hi 
Yehonala,  niece  of  Tze-hi,   first 

wife  of   Kwanghsu,  4,    137-8, 

140,  253 


Yichu.     See  Hienfung 
Yihin.     See  Kung,  Prince 
Yihwan.     See  Chun,  Prince 
Yikwang.     See  Ching,  Prince 
Yitsung.     See  Tun,  Prince 
Young  China  party,  170^,  218, 

276 

Yuan  Shi-kai,  Viceroy,  client  of 
Li  Hung-chang,  129;  makes 
his  name  in  Korea,  129 ;  ap- 
pointed to  Peiyang  command, 
175  ;  his  character,  184,  219, 
304  ;  betrays  Kwanghsu,  184  ; 
Kwanghsu's  hatred  of,  195, 
280  ;  rewarded  by  Tze-hi,  196  ; 
one  of  Tze-hi's  worthier  favour- 
ites, 203 ;  his  attitude  toward 
Boxers,  213-14, 216  ;  numerous 
posts,  271  n.  ;  and  Chang  Chih- 
tung,  291  ;  charge  of  foul  play 
against,  in  1898,  302-3 ;  in- 
valided by  Prince  Regent, 
303  ;  rumours  of  his  proposed 
recall  this  year,  303  n. ;  Tze-hi's 
gift  of  medicine  to,  325  n. ; 
her  refusal  to  allow  him  to 
retire  in  mourning,  326 
Yuen  Ming  Yuen.  See  Summer 

Palace 
Yuhien,  Manchu  official,  151,  230, 

214-16,  221,  250  «.,  321 
Yulu,  Manchu  Viceroy,  203,  228, 

233-4 

Yungcheng,  Emperor,  17 
Yunglu,  favourite  nephew  of  Tze- 
hi  :  his  mother,  20  n. ;  rapid 
promotion  to  viceroyship  of 
Chihli,  174-5  >  Reformers'  plot 
against,  182  ;  warned  by  Yuan 
Shi-kai,  184;  in  favour  of 
moderation,  189  ».,  193,  219, 
242 ;  new  posts,  196,  202  ; 
quarrel  with  Prince  Ching,  208 ; 
on  the  return  journey  to  Peking, 
253-4;  marriage  of  his  daughter 
to  Prince  Chun,  287, 297;  death 
in  1903,  287 


WILLIAM    BRKNDON   AND  SON3   LTD. 
PRINTERS.    PLYMOUTH 


University  of  California 

SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 

405  Hilgard  Avenue,  Los  Angeles,  CA  90024-1388 

Return  this  material  to  the  library 

from  which  it  was  borrowed. 


A     000  738  846     5 


